Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker announced Monday morning that he is officially running for president in 2016, bringing the Republican field to 15 candidates.
"I'm in," Walker, 47, said in an early Monday morning tweet. "I'm running for president because Americans deserve a leader who will fight and win for them."
I'm in. I'm running for president because Americans deserve a leader who will fight and win for them. - SW https://t.co/DZG253QjfP #Walker16
— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) July 13, 2015
He is expected to make a formal announcement Monday night at an event in Waukesha, Wisc., according to The Huffington Post.
"America needs new fresh leadership with big bold ideas from outside of Washington to actually get things done," Walker said in an announcement video posted to his campaign site.
"We didn't nibble around the edges [in Wisconsin]. We enacted big, bold reforms that took power out of the hands of the big government special interests and gave it to the hard-working taxpayers. People's lives are better because of it. We fought and we won," Walker said in the video. "In the Republican field, there are some who are good fighters, but they haven't won those battles. There are others who have won elections but haven't consistently taken on the big fights. We've shown that you can do both."
Perhaps Walker's most notable fight was against powerful public-sector unions in Wisconsin. In 2011, Walker signed into law a measure that took away nearly all collective bargaining rights from the vast majority of the state's public employees, drawing the wrath of unions and furious state Democratic lawmakers, reported NBC.
Pro-union supporters in the predominately Democratic state collected more than 900,000 signatures and initiated a recall election process. Nonetheless, Walker powered through and was re-elected by a slightly larger margin than in his 2010 election, according to Fox News.
Democratic National Committee chair and congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was quick to criticize Walker's announcement.
"To promote adherence to his rigid partisan views and to please the special interests that have backed his campaigns, Walker has pit the people of Wisconsin against each other in contentious ideological fights," she said in a statement, reported AFP.
"He's gutted education, refused investments in infrastructure and health care, and shuttered women's health clinics, while pushing tax policies that have overwhelmingly benefited the wealthiest few."
Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO, the nation's most powerful labor group, released an especially succinct statement: "Scott Walker is a national disgrace," reported Politico.
According to RealClearPolitics, Walker is currently polling in second place behind former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
