Here is a look at the life of Scott Walker, Republican Governor of Wisconsin.
Personal:
Birth date: November 2, 1967
Birth place: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Birth name: Scott Kevin Walker
Father: Llewellyn Walker, Baptist preacher
Mother: Patricia (Fitch) Walker, bookkeeper
Marriage: Tonette (Tarantino) Walker
Children: Matt; Alex
Education: Attended Marquette University, 1986-1990
Religion: Evangelical Christian
Other Facts:
Is the first governor in US history to successfully survive a recall election.
While a sophomore at Marquette, he unsuccessfully ran for student body president.
Walker is an Eagle Scout.
Timeline:
1988-1990 – While a student at Marquette, Walker works for IBM as a salesman.
1990 – Unsuccessful bid for Milwaukee’s 7th district seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly.
1990-1994 – Marketing and development, American Red Cross.
1993-2002 – Wins a special election to represent Wauwatosa in the state assembly, and is re-elected four times.
2002 – Walker is elected Milwaukee County Executive in a special election. He is re-elected in 2004 and 2008. Over the years, gives back a portion of his salary, totaling more than $370,000.
January 2005-March 2006 – Runs for governor of Wisconsin but drops out.
April 28, 2009 – Announces that he is running for governor for a second time.
September 14, 2010 – Defeats Mark Neumann in the gubernatorial GOP primary, with 59% of the vote.
November 2, 2010 – Is elected governor, with 52% of the vote, defeating Democrat Tom Barrett.
January 3, 2011 – Sworn in as the 45th governor of Wisconsin.
February 11, 2011 – Announces his budget-repair bill, which would increase the costs of benefits to public employees and curb their collective bargaining rights, to combat a $137 million shortfall through the end of June, and a $3.6 billion gap by 2013.
February 15, 2011 – At Gov. Walker’s request, the budget bill which is later known as Act 10, is introduced in the State Assembly and Senate.
February-March 2011 – Tens of thousands of people converge on the Wisconsin capitol building in Madison to protest Walker’s budget-cutting strategy.
February 17, 2011 – Walker calls on the 14 Democratic senators who fled to Illinois to return to Wisconsin in order to vote on the budget bill. The Democrats have called the bill an unnecessary attack on the rights of public employees, and their absence prevents a necessary quorum of 20 senators from voting on the bill.
March 9, 2011 – Wisconsin’s Republican-led Senate passes an amended version of Gov. Walker’s bill to get around a Democratic walkout, by stripping financial provisions from the original proposal, enabling lawmakers to pass the measure with fewer votes.
March 10, 2011 – The State Assembly passes the bill by a vote of 53-42.
March 11, 2011 – Governor Walker signs the “budget repair bill” into law.
March 18, 2011 – Dane County Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi halts enactment of the law so that she can hear a lawsuit filed by Democrats who say they were not given enough time to vote on it.
May 26, 2011 – Judge Sumi grants a permanent injunction against the controversial new collective bargaining law, ruling that GOP legislators failed to provide sufficient public notice before passing the measure.
June 14, 2011 – Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, by a 4-3 vote, reinstates the contentious law that curbs the collective bargaining rights of most state employees. The decision sets aside Judge Sumi’s permanent injunction. The court rules the state Legislature did not violate the state’s constitution when it passed the legislation. The law goes into effect on June 29, 2011.
January 17, 2012 – Wisconsin Democratic Party officials announce that more than a million people have signed a petition to recall Walker as governor.
June 5, 2012 – Successfully overcomes a recall vote that would have removed him from office, by a margin of 53% to 46%. This is the first time in Wisconsin’s history that a governor has faced recall, and the first time that a US governor has survived a recall election.
November 2013 – His book “Unintimidated: A Governor’s Story and a Nation’s Challenge,” co-authored with Marc Thiessen, is released.
July 31, 2014 – The Wisconsin Supreme Court upholds the 2011 collective bargaining rights law.
November 4, 2014 – Re-elected governor of Wisconsin.
January 27, 2015 – Creates the political committee “Our American Revival” to help with travel and to raise funds in preparation for a potential White House bid.
July 13, 2015 – Announces his run for the Republican presidential nomination on Twitter, and later makes a formal announcement at an event in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
July 16, 2015 – Wisconsin’s Supreme Court rules 4-2 against looking into whether Walker broke state law in his 2012 recall battle by urging major donors to support his campaign by giving to outside groups without crucial donation limits he faced. On October 3, 2016, the US Supreme Court rejects an appeal by Wisconsin prosecutors, declining to reopen the investigation.
September 21, 2015 – Announces he is dropping out of the GOP presidential race.
March 29, 2016 – Endorses Ted Cruz for the Republican presidential nomination.
October 18, 2017 – Releases a campaign video ahead of his 2018 re-election bid for a third term as governor.