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Scott Walker enters Republican race for president with tweet: 'I'm in' Scott Walker enters Republican race for president with tweet: 'I'm in'
(about 1 hour later)
Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, one of the favourites to win the Republcan nomination for the US presidential election, formally announced his candidacy on Monday via social media, tweeting: “I’m in.” Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, one of the favourites to win the Republican nomination in the US presidential election, formally announced his candidacy on Monday via social media, tweeting: “I’m in.”
He joins an already crowded field of 15 Republcan candidates, but his strong record on rightwing issues during his five years in the governor’s office means he is already polling strongly. Walker is a late entry in a crowded field of 15 Republican candidates, but his strong record on rightwing issues during his five years in the governor’s office means he is already polling strongly. In 2011, Walker succeeded in stripping collective bargaining rights from state employees, in a policy battle that drew thousands of protesters to the Wisconsin statehouse and established the governor as a conservative star.
Related: Scott Walker's track record makes him a strong contender in Republican raceRelated: Scott Walker's track record makes him a strong contender in Republican race
In a video released shortly afterwards, Walker said: “America needs new fresh leadership with big, bold ideas from outside of Washington, to actually get things done. In Wisconsin, we didn’t live around the edges. We enacted big, bold reforms and took power out of the hands of big government and special interests ... We fought and we won.” The following year, Walker defeated an attempt to unseat him in a recall election, becoming the first US governor ever to have done so.
He said of his Republican opponents: “There are some who are good fighters, but they haven’t won those battles. There are others who have won elections, but haven’t consistently taken on the big fights.” Those battles have made Walker a villain on the left, but attracted the loyal support of top conservative donors such as the oil refining magnates David and Charles Koch, who signaled in April that Walker was a preferred candidate.
Support for an abortion ban after 20 weeks of pregnancy and staunch backing for more liberal gun laws, meanwhile, have driven strong polling by Walker in the early voting state of Iowa, where survey averages have for months had him in first place in the Republican field. He currently shows 19 points support to 10 points for runner-up Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor.
Walker still must find a way to stand out in a nominating field that includes candidates who rival his hard-right credibility on social issues and who equal him for his zeal to lower taxes. A campaign video released Monday signalled Walker’s strategy, boasting of an unwillingness to “compromise our principles” and a taste for confrontation.
I'm in. I'm running for president because Americans deserve a leader who will fight and win for them. - SW http://t.co/DZG253QjfP #Walker16I'm in. I'm running for president because Americans deserve a leader who will fight and win for them. - SW http://t.co/DZG253QjfP #Walker16
I'm running for President of the United States to fight and win for the American people. -SW #Walker16 http://t.co/bBnRMAurmhI'm running for President of the United States to fight and win for the American people. -SW #Walker16 http://t.co/bBnRMAurmh
Walker is a Republican who built a national profile largely due to his clashes with labor unions. He enacted policies weakening their political power and became the first governor in US history to survive a recall election. “I’m running for president to fight and win for the American people,” Walker says in the video.
Now, shortly before his campaign launch, Walker’s task is to remind Republican voters about lesser-known triumphs he says set him apart from the crowded Republican field, which now numbers 15. “America needs new fresh leadership with big, bold ideas from outside of Washington, to actually get things done. In Wisconsin, we didn’t live around the edges, we enacted big, bold reforms and took power out of the hands of big government and special interests ... We fought and we won.”
Walker cut income and corporate taxes by nearly $2bn, lowered property taxes, legalized the carrying of concealed weapons, made abortions more difficult to obtain, required photo identification when voting and made Wisconsin a so-called “right-to-work” state that prohibits requiring a worker to pay union dues, striking another blow against organised labor four years after the state in effect ended collective bargaining for public-sector employees. He said of his Republican opponents: “There are some who are good fighters, but they haven’t won those battles. There are others who have won elections, but haven’t consistently taken on the big fights.”
Such achievements may appeal to conservatives who hold outsized sway in Republican primaries, yet some could create challenges in a general election should Walker ultimately become the party’s nominee. To unveil his campaign, the governor planned a large rally in his home state Monday evening to be followed by a road trip to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
“Ultimately Walker has to show all these victories and political successes have shown real results,” said Democratic pollster Paul Maslin. The perceived threat on the Democratic side from Walker’s candidacy was plain for the immediate attack it drew from Hillary Clinton, the former first lady and secretary of state and current Democratic presidential candidate, during a speech on Monday morning in Manhattan.
In response to his announcement, Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO union federation issued this short statement: “Scott Walker is a national disgrace.” “Republican governors like Scott Walker have made their names stomping on workers’ rights, and practically all the Republican candidates hope to do the same as president,” Clinton said. “I will fight back against these mean-spirited, misguided attacks.”
The labor dispute helped give the governor a significant head start in the 2016 money race. The largest federation of unions in the United States, the American federation of labor and congress of industrial organizations (AFL-CIO), issued a terse statement Monday on Walker’s presidential ambitions.
Walker’s three governor’s races left him with a far-reaching donor database of more than 300,000 names. He shattered state fundraising records, collecting $83m for his three Wisconsin elections, much of it coming from outside the state. “Scott Walker is a national disgrace,” read in the statement, in full.
He begins his 2016 presidential bid with at least $20m to spread his message, raised by two outside groups not subject to campaign finance donation limits, according to sources with direct knowledge of the fundraising operation. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to publicly discuss private fundraising strategy. Related: Scott Walker's résumé: survivor par excellence loves a good union bust-up
Walker talks about how the 2011 union law saved taxpayers $3bn as of late 2014. While it’s true that the state and local governments have saved roughly that amount, the costs have been shifted to the employees who have to pay more for those benefits. Conservative defenders of Walker’s record point to a $137m budget shortfall he successfully closed upon taking office in 2011. He has had difficulty balancing the budget in his nearly five years as governor, however, owing to large tax cuts he has signed, including one estimated to reduce state revenues by by $2.3bn over 10 years.
The majority of those cuts went to businesses of all sizes, but $366m went exclusively to multi-state corporations, while other measures, such as capital gains relief ($436m), were pitched narrowly to the wealthy.
Opponents of Walker in his home state say that his brand of fiscally pure conservatism has had devastating human costs. In the three years after state employees in Wisconsin lost their collective bargaining rights, their median salary of $40,000 was estimated to fall by 8-10%. Walker has also supported mandatory drug screening for welfare recipients, curtailed paid leave and ejected tens of thousands of low-income citizens from health care roles with a refusal to accept provisions of Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law.