Scott Walker Announces He Is Running For President

NBC News: Scott Walker Becomes “The 15^th Republican To Enter The 2016 Presidential Race.” On July 13, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker announced that he is running for the GOP nomination for president:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker sought to portray himself not only as a fighter but a winner when he when he became the 15th Republican to enter the 2016 presidential race on Monday.

“My record shows that I know how to fight and win. Now more than ever, America needs a president who will fight and win,” Walker said at a rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin, to announce his White House bid. 

Like he has done during his frequent visits to early voting states, Walker used his 2016 kickoff to highlight his battles with the labor unions in his state and his success winning three elections in four years.

“In the Republican field, there are some who are good fighters, but they haven't won those battles,” Walker said in a video released leading up to the rally. “There are others who have won elections but haven't consistently taken on the big fights. We showed you can do both.” 

The Wisconsin Republican enters the race as a top-tier candidate in a crowded GOP field. His strategy is expected to be focused heavily on Iowa, where he will embark on a three-day Winnebago trip later this week. [NBCNews.com, 7/13/15]

Right-Wing Media Personalities Praise Scott Walker As “Great”

“What A Great Guy”: The Five's Hosts Gush Over Walker. On the July 13 edition of Fox News' The Five, the panel's conservative co-hosts couldn't say enough good things about Gov. Walker. Eric Bolling exclaimed, “he's different from the rest of the field ... he's a genuine person.” Guest co-host Jesse Watters declared, “Scott Walker is a great guy ... I'd love to see him in the White House, just so I could watch Nancy Pelosi hightail it out of there in her little Prius.” Meanwhile, Dana Perino touted Walker's popularity with right-wing radio hosts as an asset:

PERINO: Not only does he have the support of a lot of people across the board. You know, Rush Limbaugh has been a fan of his for a long time and a lot of people got to know about Scott Walker in the lead up to this election because of that program and the coverage that it got in The Weekly Standard and Wall Street Journal and things like that. [Fox News, The Five, 7/13/15]  

Fox's Brit Hume: Walker “Took On A Tough Opponents And Won.” On the July 13 edition of America's Newsroom, Fox News' Brit Hume said of Walker: "[Republicans] look at what's happened in Washington and they that think the Republicans in Congress have been utterly feckless in trying to halt the march of Obama's policies and so on. And they look at Walker out in Wisconsin and they see that, boy, he took on, in a tough state he took on some tough opponents and won. [Fox News, America's Newsroom, 7/13/15]

Fox's Bret Baier: “He's Running As A Fighter.” On the July 13 edition of Happening Now, Fox's Bret Baier said: “He's running as a fighter...He won [his recall election] and he's using that resume to jump off and say this is the leadership that is needed in the nation.” [Fox News, Happening Now, 7/13/15]

Fox's Tantaros: Walker's “National Movement Against The Unions” Was “Epic.” On the July 13 edition of Outnumbered, host Andrea Tantaros praised him, saying: “The way he took on the unions, turned a huge budget deficit into a surplus. He's not afraid, and he started this national movement against the unions, which was epic.” [Fox News, Outnumbered, 7/13/15]

Rush Limbaugh: Walker Is “The One Guy In The Race With A Conservative Track Record.” On the July 13 edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show, Limbaugh praised Scott Walker's record:

Scott Walker has a track record. Scott Walker doesn't have to tell you what he will do if he's elected because all he has to do is point to what he has done. He just signed into law another budget in the state of Wisconsin, though Wisconsin is a blue state. He just signed a budget which eliminates tenure. He just signed a budget which gets closer to balancing the budget in the state of Wisconsin. He's done remarkable--he has implemented a conservative agenda against everything the Democrat party has to throw at him. And he's beat them three different times, which, we've heralded it here quite often and talked about it quite often. So he's--he's the one guy in the race with a conservative track record, the one guy in the race who has shown how to defeat the media and Democrat coordinated attacks on conservatives. He's shown how to hang in and be tough. And so he's the one guy that has something other than promises, to me. [The Rush Limbaugh Show, 7/13/15]

Wash. Post Columnist Marc Thiessen: Walker is “A Truly Impressive Individual.” On the July 13 edition of America's Newsroom, Fox News contributor and Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen, who is also serving as an adviser to Walker, called Walker “a truly impressive individual.”

THIESSEN:  He's a truly impressive individual. First of all, he's super smart. He came into office--he inherited a $3.6 billion deficit and turned it into a billion surplus without raising taxes, without cutting services for the poor, without decimating education. That is just absolutely political genius. But second, he's a winner. This is a guy who took on the unions and won. He became the first governor in American history to face a recall election and win. He was reelected--he was elected--he won three elections in Wisconsin in four years in a state that hasn't gone Republican for president since 1984, and he did it not by tacking to the center, but by governing as an unapologetic, full-spectrum conservative. [Fox News, America's Newsroom, 7/13/15]