Sen. Ron Johnson Met With Chorus Of Boos At Milwaukee Juneteenth Celebration

Relentlessly conservative Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) was roundly booed Saturday at  Milwaukee’s Juneteenth celebration.

“We don’t want you here,” said a member of a “growing crowd” of constituents booing the senator, reported the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The boos were so loud the senator was drowned out at one point as he spoke to a TV reporter on camera.

Johnson was not pleased, complaining to the Journal that his reception is “not how you heal a nation.”

He also said it was “unusual” behavior for folks from Wisconsin. “Most people in Wisconsin say, ‘You are in our prayers; we are praying for you.’ … But you got some people here that are just sort of nasty at some points,” he told the Journal.

The senator claimed he heard only “one” nasty comment, but several others were captured on Twitter. 

One spectator told the newspaper that “Ron Johnson’s politics are not for us.” A Twitter critic “translated” the boos to complaints about Johnson’s support for voter suppression and for the Capitol insurrection, which he has insisted was “peaceful” (though he also said he would have been “concerned” had rioters been Black Lives Matter protesters).

Spectators were also particularly upset that Johnson has steadfastly blocked making Juneteenth a holiday. Johnson single-handedly blocked the bill from advancing in the Senate last year due, he said, to concerns over its cost.

He finally backed down this year at the last minute, then quickly attempted to capitalize on the holiday by turning up at the city’s celebration.