Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin whose battle against labour unions in 2011 turned him into a hero of the conservative right, has given his clearest indication yet that he is intending to run for the White House next year.
Delivering the keynote speech to the Republicans’ winter meeting in San Diego on Thursday night, he set out his stall as a fresh-faced doer who would offer an alternative to the stale politics of Washington. And he fired the opening rounds of what he hinted he hoped and believed would be a presidential battle between him and Hillary Clinton.
“She lives in Washington, she worked in Washington. You look at everything that people dislike about Washington, and she embodies it,” he said, referring to the former US secretary of state and first lady, who Walker said would almost certainly be the Democratic presidential nominee.
The address to the Republican national committee is the latest in a flurry of activity around Walker, 47, that is creating presidential buzz. Next Friday he will speak at the Iowa Freedom Summit, placing his stake in a state that marks the starting line of the White House marathon when it holds the first presidential caucuses.
As a further indicator that has had political pundits sucking furiously on their pens, Walker also recently hired a former political director of the RNC, Rick Wiley, as a senior adviser. Wiley is an old hand at managing campaigns and could help to bring Walker the national heft and name recognition he currently lacks.
In his RNC speech, Walker made no mention by name of the many rivals who are already crowding into the Republican tussle for nomination. But he emphasised two qualities of a successful presidential candidate going into 2016 that were clearly designed to raise his profile while diminishing those of others.
First, he repeatedly stressed the need for the Republican party to find a new standard-bearer rather than to rely on familiar figures. “If we’re going to be up against Hillary Clinton, we need to offer a new, fresh approach,” he said.
Implicitly, that was a poke in the ribs for Jeb Bush (because of his last name), Rick Perry (who ran in 2012) and especially Mitt Romney (who has flagged up a possible third run). He made that point explicitly earlier this week when he called Romney a “good man” but added that Americans “don’t want the worn-out, tired views of the past”.
Second, Walker stressed the importance of the Republican party choosing a politician who can get things done – epitomised by state governors like him – rather than career politicians in Washington. That ruled out US senators considering a presidential run such as Marco Rubio of Florida, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas.
“Washington isn’t the place with the answers that we’re looking for. I think the states are where we get things done,” he said.
Walker was inaugurated earlier this month for a second term as Wisconsin governor. Since his election in 2010 he has proved to be a singularly contentious politician who pushed through strong anti-union laws the following year and survived a recall election in 2012.
In November, after an intense and close-run re-election battle against the Democratic candidate Mary Burke, he ended up winning by a handy 52% to 47%.
