[2] Barnes served as director of Cleveland's Department of Community Relations and was a senior tax auditor and investigator in the city's division of taxation before serving two terms in the Ohio House of Representatives from 1999 to 2002.
Barnes opted out of serving a third term and was replaced by Michael DeBose.
However, upon DeBose being term limited in 2010, Barnes opted to try and take back his old seat.
Barnes ran unopposed in the general election, was sworn into his former seat on January 3, 2011.
[4] He won a contested primary election against Jill Miller Zimon, a city councilwoman in Pepper Pike, with 54% of the vote.