Following his official announcement Monday morning, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker kicked off his presidential campaign that night with an event in Waukesha, Wisc.
After months of speculation, Walker officially announced his run on Twitter and with a video early Monday morning. On Tuesday Walker will begin touring the country by traveling to Las Vegas first. He will spend the rest of the week visiting South Carolina, Georgia, New Hampshire and Iowa.
“We need new, fresh leadership; leadership with big, bold ideas from outside of Washington; the kind of leadership that can actually get things done – like we have here in Wisconsin,” Walker declared to the crowd. “Since I’ve been governor, we took on the unions and won.”
Walker first gained national attention by reforming labor policy and curtailing union power in his first term as governor. The reforms, known as Act 10, significantly changed the collective bargaining process for most public employees within the state. It also required public unions to hold a renewal vote every couple of years to determine if workers still wanted them.
While governor, Walker was able to go beyond just labor policy and tackle taxes, education and economic reform as well.
“We reduced taxes by $2 billion and lowered taxes on individuals, employers and property, ” Walker continued. “In fact, property taxes are lower today than they were in 2010. How many governors can say that?”
“Since I’ve been governor, we passed lawsuit reform and regulatory reform,” he detailed. “We defunded Planned Parenthood and enacted pro-life legislation. We passed Castle Doctrine and concealed carry. And we now require a photo ID to vote in the State of Wisconsin.”
Walker’s stance of taxes has even earned him praise from Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR). The group opposes tax increases.
“Here, the opportunity is equal for all, but the outcome is up to each and every one of us,” Walker concluded. “You see, there is a reason we just took a day off to celebrate the 4th of July and not April 15th. Because in America, we celebrate our independence from the government and not our dependence on it.”
Labor unions and their supporters will likely do all they can to defeat Walker during the election. After passing Act 10 unions tried to get Walker thrown out of office with a recall election in 2012 and during the 2014 midterm. Walker was able to beat them every time.
Republicans in the legislature went a step further in the past year when they passed a law which banned mandatory union dues as a condition of employment. Though Walker wasn’t directly involved in creating the measure, unions blamed him anyways.
To get the Republican nomination, Walker will first have to beat Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul among others in the Republican primary.
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