Insisting “I will fight and win for you,” Scott Walker launched his White House bid on Monday, making the case he is the conservative Washington outsider that Republicans are looking for in 2016.
The Wisconsin governor’s speech from the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha had abundant red meat for the GOP base — including a promise to repeal ObamaCare, a number of references to religious faith and an unusual twist when Walker acknowledged from the stage an ex-Marine who had been held captive by Iranians during the hostage crisis of 35 years ago.
{mosads}Speaking with a clip-on microphone and without a podium or visible notes, Walker sought to push back against skeptics who suggest he lacks the dynamism and charisma necessary to win the nation’s highest office.
“We need new, fresh leadership, leadership with big, bold ideas from outside of Washington, the kind of leadership that knows how to get things done — like we have done here in Wisconsin,” he said, in remarks that could interpreted as a jab at Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton or intraparty rivals such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush or Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.) or Ted Cruz (Texas).
Walker is a top-tier candidate who is the considered the front-runner to win Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses.
He’s a favorite of conservatives but also a rival for GOP establishment support to Bush, the only Republican candidate ahead of Walker in the Real Clear Politics average of national opinion polls.
Walker took an implicit shot at Bush when he talking about education reforms he had enacted in Wisconsin, and added, “I want to make sure we have high standards but those standards should be set at the local level. No Common Core, no nationwide school boards.”
Bush is a defender of Common Core, a set of educational standards that are unpopular with many conservatives.
Walker talked, as he often does, about shopping at Kohl’s, buying shirts at cheap rates and using coupons and flyers to extract the steepest discounts. He also recalled “flipping hamburgers in high school at McDonald’s to save up for college.”
His campaign logo was painted on a wooden background — a homey touch that is unusual in the era of modern, glitzy campaigning. Walker also perspired conspicuously throughout the speech, a point that attracted some attention on social media.
The governor’s supporters often highlight strengths such as his hard-won battles over public sector unions in Wisconsin; an electoral record of three statewide victories this decade, including repelling an attempt to recall him in 2012; and his modest background.
Walker either directly mentioned, or alluded to, all these themes during his speech.
He began with a tribute to adults who had inspired a love of country within the governor when he was still a child: one a leader of his Boy Scout troop who had fought in both world wars, the other a Vietnam veteran.
“Veterans like that remind me that what makes America great is that it is a can-do kind of country,” Walker said. “We just have a government in Washington that just can’t seem to get the job done — Washington, or as I call it, 68 square miles surrounded by reality.”
No politicians these days lose votes by distancing themselves from Washington, but Walker seems especially eager to do so in a race where he is competing not only against Bush, but prominent congressional Republicans, including Rubio and Cruz.
He appears to see a political opening if he emphasizes some of the stances that have most outraged Democrats. Early in the speech he noted, “We defunded Planned Parenthood and passed pro-life legislation. We passed castle doctrine and concealed carry so we could protect ourselves, our families and our property. And we now require a photo ID to vote in the state of Wisconsin.”
Later, he made of a point of noting — to loud applause — that welfare recipients in Wisconsin will soon be obliged to take drug tests.
The introduction of the former hostage in Iran, Kevin Hermening, was among the most emotionally resonant moments in the speech.
Walker launched his campaign against the backdrop of a pending nuclear deal between the Obama administration and Iran that could come within the next 24 hours. Critics, including Walker, have suggested the U.S. is offering too many concessions to Tehran.
Walker noted that Hermening, who was in the Marines at the time of the crisis, “grew up down the road in Oak Creek.”
“He knows that Iran is not a place we should be doing business with,” Walker continued. “Iran hasn’t changed much since he and the other hostages were released on President Reagan’s first day in office.”
That remark was one of three references to Reagan, a hero to Walker and one with whom his supporters see parallels.
Walker’s remarks on foreign policy came framed as an attack on “the Obama/Clinton doctrine” — one of two direct references to the former secretary of State in the address. They also includes repeated warnings about Islamic terrorism, an insistence that the U.S. needed to “start treating Israel like an ally” and a reference to the Wisconsin governor’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in May.
Liberals hit Walker hard before his speech — a backhanded compliment, perhaps, to his potential strength as a candidate.
Earlier in the day, Clinton had accused Walker of having made his name by “stomping on workers’ rights.”
The AFL-CIO released a statement from president Richard Trumka that, in its entirety, read: “Scott Walker is a national disgrace.”
Correct the Record, a super-PAC that supports Clinton’s candidacy, released a memo attacking Walker’s economic record and his links to the conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch. Meanwhile, Democratic opposition research group American Bridge launched a video on Facebook that asserted “Scott Walker’s extreme record has failed Wisconsin.”
In the wake of his campaign launch, Walker will visit the four states that hold the earliest contests in the nominating process.
He will be in Nevada on Tuesday, South Carolina on Wednesday, New Hampshire on Thursday and Iowa Friday through Sunday. He will hold at least 10 public events in Iowa alone.