Scott Walker is a two-term Governor from Wisconsin who sought the Republican nomination for the 2016 presidential election. He was born on November 2, 1967 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where his mother worked as a bookkeeper and his father worked as a Baptist Minister. His father moved the family to Wisconsin when Scott was 10 years old, and he developed in interest in politics while attending high school. Before begining his studies at Marquette University, Scott worked on a Wisconsin gubernatorial campaign.
Walker completed approximately 3/4 of his college career before dropping out of Marquette in 1990 and accepting a full time job with the American Red Cross. Later that same year Walker ran a campaign for Milwaukee's seventh district seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly and although he won the Republican primary he was defeated in the general election. Walker moved his campaign and ran in a special election two years later in a different, more conservative district, and defeated his Democratic opponent. He was re-elected four times, serving as a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1993-2002. While a member of the State Assembly Walker primarilly focused on criminal justice legislation, and was well known for being a fiscal conservative and in favor of welfare reform. Walker and a colleague objected to the state's hiring of an employee based on that employee's religious beliefs in 2001, but were unsuccessful in stopping the hire.
In April 2002 Walker was elected Milwaukee County Executive during a special election following a pension scandal involving the previous executive. He was then elected to a full four-year term in 2004, and won a second four-year term in 2008.
After dropping out of the 2006 race early, Walker was a favorite for the Republican nomination for Governor of Wisconsin during the 2010 election. He announced his candidacy in April 2009, and later that year garnered 91% of the vote from delegates at the Wisconsin Republican convention. Walker won the general election on November 2, 2010, with 52% of the vote.
Amid a contentious collective bargaining dispute, citizens and lawmakers of Wisconsin began the effort to recall Walker officially in November 2011. Organizers and individuals calling for Walker's recall opposed his limitations placed on collective bargaining rights for state employees and pay raise limits for public employees. After a controversial election, Walker was victorious, marking the first time that a Governor has survived a recall. Walker ran for re-election in 2014, and although he was opposed by influential labor unions his conservative donors were able to offset the impact, and he won the election by six percent.
As Governor of Wisconsin Walker supported the right-to-work, froze tuition for three years at Universities within the University of Wisconsin system, and rejected a $37.6 million federal grant to set up a health care exchange system in Wisconsin for the Affordable Care Act. He signed state budgets that defunded Planned Parenthood, and signed a pledge to not raise taxes in order to combat climate change while simultaneously slashing funding for environmental regulation and oversight. Walker is against stricter gun regulations and received a rating of 100% from the National Rifle Association in 2014. He opposes strengthening the U.S. relationship with Cuba, and has stated that as President he would not rule out the option of sending in ground troops to combat jihadists with the Islamic State.
On July 13, 2015, Walker announced that he would seek the Republican party's nomination for President via his social media accounts. During the early campaign he consistently polled better than most of his counterparts.
Scott Walker ended his campaign for the Republican nomination in mid-September 2015, due to a lack of fundraising unfrastructure.
