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‘Everyman’ Walker runs for the White House
Megan Murphy in Washington
He drives a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He brags about wearing a sweater he bought for $1 at Kohl’s department store.
He touts his humble upbringing as a small-town minister’s son, and how he proposed to his wife over ribs at a local barbecue joint. Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, has criss-crossed the country for months regaling crowds with his everyman, “regular Joe” shtick.
On Monday, as he becomes the 15th Republican to enter the race for the party’s 2016 presidential nomination, his backers are hoping he can convince voters not only that he is the most authentic candidate, but one who can rise to meet the most complex economic and foreign policy challenges facing the country.
“He’s a Midwesterner, he is a governor, and he is an average Joe,” said Larry Sabato, a politics expert at the University of Virginia. “People can relate to that. And if you pretend to be something you’re not, you’re going to be unmasked.”
Since surging into the top tier of the crowded field with a barnstorming speech at a GOP event in Iowa in January, Mr Walker’s workmanlike approach has been damaged by a series of public gaffes, and amid whispers from senior Republicans that he is not ready for prime time.
Having first risen to national prominence on the back of a crackdown on public sector unions and a conservative fiscal agenda rooted in boosting jobs and slashing the size of government, Mr Walker is expected to cite his record in Wisconsin as a template for broader reform.
He has proven to be an exceptional political warrior, becoming the first American governor to survive a recall election before winning a second term in 2014 — all in a state that has backed the Democratic candidate for president every four years since 1988.
He would also be the first nominee from a major party to have not graduated from college since the GOP’s Barry Goldwater in 1964; Mr Walker dropped out of
November 1990 At just 22 years old and six months after dropping out of Marquette University in his senior year, Mr Walker mounts an unsuccessful challenge to an incumbent Democrat for a seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly. The race remains the only election defeat of his political career.
June 1993 After relocating to a more conservative district, Mr Walker wins a seat in the State Assembly by campaigning on a staunch fiscal conservative and tough-on-crime platform.
April 2002 Mr Walker wins a special election for Milwaukee County Executive after the incumbent resigns amid a pension scandal. He is re-elected to full terms in 2004 and 2008. The only Republican to have ever held the traditionally Democratic seat, Mr Walker turns a $3.5m budget deficit into a surplus and reduces the county workforce by 20 per cent during his eight year tenure.
November 2010 Mr Walker rides a nationwide Republican wave election to victory in Wisconsin governor’s race. With the state facing a $3.6bn budget shortfall, Mr Walker promises to create 250,000 jobs in his first term through an aggressive programme of tax cuts and public spending reforms.
But a pitch centred on his successful financial stewardship of the state has been complicated in recent months by a fierce wrangle within his own party over Wisconsin’s two-year, $73bn budget, and his failure to deliver on his flagship promise to create 250,000 private sector jobs during his first term.
He came up far short, with data showing that Wisconsin added only 128,000 jobs between 2011 and 2014, and the state continues to lag Midwestern peers in job growth. Of equal concern to potential supporters has been the inconsistency of his positions on core GOP issues such as immigration and the “common core” education standards.
As recently as 2013, Mr Walker expressed support for a pathway to citizenship for unauthorised immigrants, a position that is anathema to a broad swath of the party’s base.
He has reversed himself, and has hardened his stance on other core conservative issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. Mr Walker shocked many strategists on both sides of the political spectrum by last month calling for a constitutional amendment to allow states to decide whether gay marriage should be allowed after the Supreme Court ruled it was a constitutional right.
While he softened his tone a day later, after his wife Tonette and his two sons revealed their disappointment with his reaction, party donors keen to move the battle for the White House in 2016 away from divisive social issues characterised the episode as amateurish.
Mr Walker's team is clear that his pathway to the nomination runs squarely through Iowa, the first-in-the-nation caucus state where a predominantly white, heavily evangelical base traditionally chooses candidates heavy on red meat conservatism and light on more moderate, considered positions.
Mr Walker has been criticised for citing President Ronald Reagan’s firing of air traffic controllers in 1981 as the most significant foreign policy event of his lifetime, supposedly for the message it sent to the Soviet Union, and he struggled on his first high-profile overseas trip to the United Kingdom to answer whether he believed in evolution. In recent months, he has been on a crash course to bolster his foreign policy bona fides, convening intensive briefings at the state house in Madison. He has brought in a large circle of advisers, and he has been candid about admitting where he lacks the requisite experience, aides say.
To win, however, many say he needs to stick to his guns — literally and figuratively.
"This is who he is," said Grover Norquist, the influential small government advocate who has praised many of Mr Walker's reforms. "He didn't come from privilege. And he's going to fight on his track record in Wisconsin."
Megan Murphy in Washington
He drives a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He brags about wearing a sweater he bought for $1 at Kohl’s department store.
He touts his humble upbringing as a small-town minister’s son, and how he proposed to his wife over ribs at a local barbecue joint. Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, has criss-crossed the country for months regaling crowds with his everyman, “regular Joe” shtick.
On Monday, as he becomes the 15th Republican to enter the race for the party’s 2016 presidential nomination, his backers are hoping he can convince voters not only that he is the most authentic candidate, but one who can rise to meet the most complex economic and foreign policy challenges facing the country.
“He’s a Midwesterner, he is a governor, and he is an average Joe,” said Larry Sabato, a politics expert at the University of Virginia. “People can relate to that. And if you pretend to be something you’re not, you’re going to be unmasked.”
Since surging into the top tier of the crowded field with a barnstorming speech at a GOP event in Iowa in January, Mr Walker’s workmanlike approach has been damaged by a series of public gaffes, and amid whispers from senior Republicans that he is not ready for prime time.
Having first risen to national prominence on the back of a crackdown on public sector unions and a conservative fiscal agenda rooted in boosting jobs and slashing the size of government, Mr Walker is expected to cite his record in Wisconsin as a template for broader reform.
He has proven to be an exceptional political warrior, becoming the first American governor to survive a recall election before winning a second term in 2014 — all in a state that has backed the Democratic candidate for president every four years since 1988.
He would also be the first nominee from a major party to have not graduated from college since the GOP’s Barry Goldwater in 1964; Mr Walker dropped out of
November 1990 At just 22 years old and six months after dropping out of Marquette University in his senior year, Mr Walker mounts an unsuccessful challenge to an incumbent Democrat for a seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly. The race remains the only election defeat of his political career.
June 1993 After relocating to a more conservative district, Mr Walker wins a seat in the State Assembly by campaigning on a staunch fiscal conservative and tough-on-crime platform.
April 2002 Mr Walker wins a special election for Milwaukee County Executive after the incumbent resigns amid a pension scandal. He is re-elected to full terms in 2004 and 2008. The only Republican to have ever held the traditionally Democratic seat, Mr Walker turns a $3.5m budget deficit into a surplus and reduces the county workforce by 20 per cent during his eight year tenure.
November 2010 Mr Walker rides a nationwide Republican wave election to victory in Wisconsin governor’s race. With the state facing a $3.6bn budget shortfall, Mr Walker promises to create 250,000 jobs in his first term through an aggressive programme of tax cuts and public spending reforms.
But a pitch centred on his successful financial stewardship of the state has been complicated in recent months by a fierce wrangle within his own party over Wisconsin’s two-year, $73bn budget, and his failure to deliver on his flagship promise to create 250,000 private sector jobs during his first term.
He came up far short, with data showing that Wisconsin added only 128,000 jobs between 2011 and 2014, and the state continues to lag Midwestern peers in job growth. Of equal concern to potential supporters has been the inconsistency of his positions on core GOP issues such as immigration and the “common core” education standards.
As recently as 2013, Mr Walker expressed support for a pathway to citizenship for unauthorised immigrants, a position that is anathema to a broad swath of the party’s base.
He has reversed himself, and has hardened his stance on other core conservative issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. Mr Walker shocked many strategists on both sides of the political spectrum by last month calling for a constitutional amendment to allow states to decide whether gay marriage should be allowed after the Supreme Court ruled it was a constitutional right.
While he softened his tone a day later, after his wife Tonette and his two sons revealed their disappointment with his reaction, party donors keen to move the battle for the White House in 2016 away from divisive social issues characterised the episode as amateurish.
Mr Walker's team is clear that his pathway to the nomination runs squarely through Iowa, the first-in-the-nation caucus state where a predominantly white, heavily evangelical base traditionally chooses candidates heavy on red meat conservatism and light on more moderate, considered positions.
Mr Walker has been criticised for citing President Ronald Reagan’s firing of air traffic controllers in 1981 as the most significant foreign policy event of his lifetime, supposedly for the message it sent to the Soviet Union, and he struggled on his first high-profile overseas trip to the United Kingdom to answer whether he believed in evolution. In recent months, he has been on a crash course to bolster his foreign policy bona fides, convening intensive briefings at the state house in Madison. He has brought in a large circle of advisers, and he has been candid about admitting where he lacks the requisite experience, aides say.
To win, however, many say he needs to stick to his guns — literally and figuratively.
"This is who he is," said Grover Norquist, the influential small government advocate who has praised many of Mr Walker's reforms. "He didn't come from privilege. And he's going to fight on his track record in Wisconsin."