Walker is a tool....

Scott Walker vows to ‘fight and win’ with a conservative message for 2016

By Jenna Johnson

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, whose time at the ramparts against Democrats and labor unions made him a national conservative hero, announced his presidential candidacy Monday, vowing to bring his combative style and an outsider’s perspective to the White House.

“Americans deserve a president who will fight and win for them,” Walker told a crowd of a few thousand supporters packed into a sweltering county fair building in this conservative Milwaukee suburb. “Someone who will stand up for the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. . . . Someone who will stand up for America.”

In a 33-minute speech, delivered extemporaneously, Walker had a sharp and ideological pitch focused on his victories over liberals in this blue-leaning state on issues including abortion, school vouchers and voter-ID requirements. Various speakers reminded the crowd that Walker won three elections in four years, including a hard-fought recall effort by Democrats after he pushed legislation that severely weakened public-sector unions.

Unlike top GOP presidential rivals such as former Florida governor Jeb Bush, whose even-tempered politics connote a ­desire to win over independents and conservative Democrats, Walker made his overtures to the base of his party. Those appeals followed a months-long run-up to his campaign launch during which he has tacked right on key issues such as immigration and same-sex marriage.

On Monday evening, Walker, 47 — a Ronald Reagan devotee who was married on the Gipper’s birthday — said Washington leaders are out of touch with the nation, over-regulating businesses, weakening families and forcing mandates such as President Obama’s health-care law.

“We need new, fresh leadership — leadership with big, bold ideas from outside of Washington,” Walker said. “The kind of leadership that knows how to get things done, like we have here in Wisconsin.”

Walker’s fighting posture is tempered by an Everyman — some would say milquetoast — persona that the candidate goes out of his way to emphasize. It includes a fondness for Wisconsin-made Harley-Davidson motorcycles, a love of “American Idol” and a penchant for buying clothes from Wisconsin discount retailer Kohl’s. He plans to tour Iowa this week in a Winnebago RV.

But there are challenges ahead for a confident candidate who has not raised as much money as some of his GOP challengers at the front of the pack. Walker also has been accused of flip-flopping on issues, especially on creating a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants — an idea he once supported but now does not. Some donors worry that Walker, the son of a Baptist minister, has become too conservative on some social issues, particularly same-sex marriage, in an effort to win the Iowa caucuses. Foreign policy has been one of Walker’s weaker areas, so he has been traveling abroad and studying with advisers.

And although the governor has built a political career warring with Democrats, he is not used to facing attacks from fellow Republicans.

Walker formally announced his long-anticipated candidacy in a video Monday morning in which he described the crowded GOP field as having a lot of “good fighters” who haven’t won any battles and election winners who “haven’t consistently taken on the big fights.” He looked at the camera and said, “We showed you can do both.”

Although he didn’t mention his opponents during his announcement speech at the Waukesha County Expo Center, he touched on themes to contrast himself with them.

Walker didn’t wear a suit or tie, and he rolled up his shirt sleeves, sweating profusely under the bright lights. The wood-slat stage featured Walker’s campaign logo, his name in a sans-serif font with a stylized American flag replacing the ‘e’ in his last name. There were flags, red-white-and-blue bunting and barbecue. Country music and classic rock blared as the crowd waited for him to arrive.

The candidate’s two college-age sons, Matt and Alex, emceed the event and made fun of their father for wearing unflattering jean shorts and tube socks and wrongly considering himself a talented singer.

Four Republican women vouched for Walker at the event. Rachel Campos-Duffy, a Fox News Channel pundit, attacked Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton. State Sen. Leah Vukmir described Walker as a hard worker whom she had once underestimated. Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch recited a Bible verse that Walker shared with her during a difficult time. And Walker’s wife, Tonette, described him as “someone who will not be intimidated by anyone.”

Throughout the day, Democrats and liberal activists, along with a few protesters, gathered outside the expo center. Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor union, which fought Walker’s dramatic reforms, issued a six-word statement: “Scott Walker is a national disgrace.”

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), chairman of the Democratic National Committee, described Walker as a rigid partisan who has “already brought the worst of Washington to Wisconsin.”

Three local Democratic leaders were amused that they were able to walk into Walker’s event. State Rep. Mandela Barnes of Milwaukee said an event organizer invited him to sit on the stage.

Although several wealthy donors were in the audience, there was no fancy VIP section. The crowd buzzed with excitement that the governor — a local guy from a small town who dropped out of college — is running for president. Some waved small American flags.

“Scott is in touch with us folks,” said Barbara Treick, 72, a retiree from Brookfield who twirled her finger at everyone around her. “I want a president who will listen to the people who voted for him.”

Karyn Romano and her 10-year-old daughter, Grace, drove up from the Chicago suburbs to see Walker.

“I like that he takes on hard issues, you know? He isn’t afraid,” said Romano, 48. “I think you need politicians like that.”

Walker has pitched himself as an average guy who understands the concerns of working- and middle-class families. He routinely criticizes Washington as being “68 square miles surrounded by reality.” And in a race that already involves two wealthy candidates from well-known political families — Bush and Clinton — Walker often talks about growing up without much money in a small town and says his family still lives modestly, packing brown-bag lunches and using coupons.

Walker was born on Nov. 2, 1967, in Colorado Springs. His family moved to a small town in northeast Iowa before settling in Delavan, Wis., where Walker attended high school. His father, Llew Walker, was a Baptist pastor and his mother, Pat Walker, did bookkeeping work.

“My brother, David, and I didn’t inherit fame and fortune from our family,” Walker said. “What we got was the belief that if you work hard and play by the rules, you can do and be anything you want. That’s the American dream. And that is worth fighting for.”

Walker enrolled at Marquette University in Milwaukee in 1986 and was known for wearing suits to class. In 1990, he left college without graduating.

He took a job at the local American Red Cross and, after losing one race, was elected in 1993 to the state assembly, where he championed tough-on-crime reforms and several antiabortion bills. He was elected Milwaukee County executive in 2002 and governor in 2010.

Weeks after taking office in January 2011, Walker launched the attack on public-sector unions that would come to define him on the national stage and introduce him to major Republican donors. The backlash was swift and angry, with as many as 100,000 protesters descending on Madison.

“All those protesters came to Madison, and he did not back down — that’s the Number One reason people like him,” said Jonathan Burkan, a financial services executive from New York who is helping Walker raise money. “People want to see leadership, someone who says what he believes and does it.”

Ahead of his announcement, Walker spent Sunday with a television crew visiting local spots that are key parts of his biography: the Countryside restaurant, where he washed dishes while in high school. The McDonald’s where he worked after that. And then Saz’s, a Milwaukee restaurant and bar known for its barbecue, where he met his wife of 24 years.

Later this week, Walker will visit five early-voting states in six days: Nevada, South Carolina, Georgia, New Hampshire and Iowa.

In announcing his candidacy, Walker said “we” instead of “I” — a nod to his wife and sons.

“Throughout our history in times of crisis — be it economic or fiscal, be it military or spiritual — there have been men and women of courage who have been willing to stand up and think more about future generations than they thought about their own political futures,” Walker said. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is one of those times in American history.”