Former Packers coach Mike Holmgren to campaign for Democratic Senate candidate Mandela Barnes

Former Green Bay Packers head coach Mike Holmgren will join Democratic Senate candidate Mandela Barnes on the campaign trail later this month, the Wisconsin Democrat’s campaign announced Sunday.

Barnes is seeking to unseat incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson (R). 

In a tweet on Sunday, Barnes shared a video of the 74-year-old former NFL coach, who won the Super Bowl with Green Bay in 1996, urging Wisconsin residents to contribute to Barnes’s campaign, noting Johnson’s slew of political ads attacking his Democratic challenger. 

“We all know things on the football field can get nasty, but the baloney being put out there by Ron Johnson and [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell [R-Ky.], just awful,” the three-time Super Bowl champion said in the recorded message. “Ron Johnson has lied to Wisconsinites and now he’s lying about Mandela Barnes with millions of dollars in attack ads.” 

“We’ve got to throw a Hail Mary, if we’re going to raise the kind of money needed to compete against everything coming Mandela’s way and send Ron Johnson packing,” Holmgren added.

Holmgren’s remarks come after Johnson and Barnes recently had one of their two scheduled debates earlier this month, as both candidates used the debate stage to call each other extremists on issues such as abortion, crime and the future of Social Security. 

The Johnson-Barnes showdown is expected to be one of the closest Senate races in next month’s midterm elections and could swing the outcome of which political party will have majority control of the chamber.

In a poll from the Marquette University Law school published last week, Johnson held a 6-point lead over Barnes, the state’s current lieutenant governor, among likely voters in the state. The poll found that 52 percent of likely voters said they’ll vote for Johnson, while 46 percent of respondents offered their support for Barnes. 

Holmgren, along with Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D), plans to join Barnes in a special event on October 23.

“Huge thanks to Coach Holmgren! Excited to have you on board this senate season,” Barnes wrote in a tweet. “Let’s go WIN!”