page_title: Scott Walker (politician)
section_title: 2016 presidential campaign
hierarchical_section_title: Scott Walker (politician) / 2016 presidential campaign
caption_attribution_description: English: Flag logo of Scott Walker's 2016 presidential campaign
context_page_description: Scott Kevin Walker is an American politician who served as the 45th Governor of Wisconsin from 2011 to 2019. He is a member of the Republican Party.
  Born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Walker was raised in Plainfield, Iowa and in Delavan, Wisconsin. He was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1992, representing a district in western Milwaukee County. In 2002, Walker was elected Milwaukee County Executive in a special election following the resignation of F. Thomas Ament; he was elected to a full term in 2004 and was re-elected in 2008.
  Walker ran for Governor of Wisconsin in 2006, but dropped out of the race before the primary election. He ran again in 2010 and won. Shortly after his inauguration in 2011, Walker gained national attention by introducing the Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill; the legislation proposed to effectively eliminate collective bargaining for most Wisconsin public employees. In response, opponents of the bill protested at the Wisconsin State Capitol and Senate Democrats left the state in an effort to prevent the bill from being passed. Nevertheless, the Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill became law in March 2011.
context_section_description: In late January 2015, Walker set up a 527 organization called "Our American Revival" to "help spread his message and underwrite his activities" which The Washington Post described as helpful for building the political and fundraising networks for a run for the presidency.
  In February 2015, Trip Gabriel of The New York Times described him as having "quickly vaulted into the top tier of likely candidates in the Republican presidential race". On April 20, at a fundraising event for the New York State Republican Party, David Koch told donors that he and his brother, who oversee one of the biggest private political organizations in the country, believed that Walker would be the Republican nominee.
  Following a controversial statement by Rudy Giuliani, Walker declined to answer the question of whether he believes President Obama loves America or was a true Christian, stating that he did not know President Obama's patriotism was in doubt.
  In June 2015, Walker took a further step towards a presidential campaign when he established a "testing-the-waters" federal campaign committee. This allowed him to raise federal campaign dollars as he explored a possible presidential run.
  In July 2015, after Walker aides said that he would soon announce his candidacy, Walker announced his candidacy via social media on the morning of July 13, 2015, with Walker speaking at a formal event in Waukesha, Wisconsin that afternoon.
  As of August 18, 2015, Crowdpac ranked Walker as the fourth-most conservative candidate (following Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Ben Carson) for the 2016 presidential election based on an analysis of campaign donors. Based on an analysis including Crowdpac's rating, public statements by candidates on issues, and congressional voting (not applicable to Walker), FiveThirtyEight had ranked Walker the third-most conservative among candidates as of May 27, 2015.
  Walker, who started his campaign as a top-tier candidate after what was considered a "break-out" event at the Iowa Freedom Caucus in January, saw his position gradually decline over the summer in 2015. Initially a front-runner in the race, Walker saw a precipitous decline in both polling numbers and campaign funds. On August 6, Walker participated in the first Republican primary debate in Cleveland, Ohio. His performance was seen as decent, without much fanfare nor attention given to it due to his short answers to questions which limited his airtime. Shortly after the debate, Walker admitted to wanting more airtime, but also mentioned that there were multiple debates ahead and that he was successful in changing the argument to which candidate could defeat Hillary Clinton in the general election.
  A national poll by CNN/ORC released on September 20, in the wake of the second Republican debate held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, revealed that Walker's popularity among likely Republican voters had dropped to less than half of 1 percent.
  On September 21, 2015, Walker suspended his campaign and asked other candidates to do the same, so that the party could rally around a conservative alternative to Donald Trump. Once considered a front-runner for the Republican nomination, Walker's campaign suffered from two lackluster debate performances, low fundraising and an inability to raise his profile among the 16 other GOP contenders.
  On March 29, 2016, Walker endorsed the candidacy of Ted Cruz. After Donald Trump became the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party in May 2016, Walker stated that he would support Trump as the Republican nominee, saying that Trump would make a better president than Hillary Clinton. Walker withdrew his support for Trump on June 8, 2016 after Trump called the judge Gonzalo P. Curiel biased against Trump because of Curiel's Mexican heritage. While still maintaining that Trump would be better choice than Clinton, Walker noted that Trump was not yet the party's nominee and wanted Trump to renounce his comments on the judge before the 2016 Republican National Convention.
  Walker also prepped then-Indiana Governor and Republican vice-presidential nomi
caption: Flag logo of Walker's campaign
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