Contact: Courtney Beyer, courtneyb@wisdems.org
MADISON — Former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker announced today that he wouldn’t run for higher office in 2022 despite many prior public statements he has made to the contrary. Walker announced that he has accepted a full-time position at Young America’s Foundation beginning in 2021, claiming this would “preclude” him from running for governor or U.S. Senate in 2022.
But this isn’t the first time Walker has made promises not to pursue higher political ambitions; in October 2014, just weeks before Wisconsinites re-elected Walker to a second-term, Walker promised Wisconsinites he wouldn’t run for president in 2016, saying: “My plan is if the people of the state of Wisconsin elect me on Nov. 4 is to be here for four years…It’s a position I’m committed to.”
Walker went on to launch a 71-day bid for president just 8 months later.
“While we’re glad Scott Walker has decided to flee the state after having been rejected by voters, we’re all too familiar with his habit of breaking his promises,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler. “Scott Walker is a career politician who’s spent his entire adult life chasing higher office. We have no reason to believe that’s suddenly changed. Walker’s new employers in Washington should be warned — he’s more likely to break his promises to them than keep them.”
