Scott Walker Calls Jeb Bush a Leader 'From the Past'
Walker says voters "want a new, fresh face to lead this country."
— -- Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker says Jeb Bush's last name makes him a poor choice to take on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in a general election contest.
"I don't think a name from the past beats a name from the past. I think you need a name from the future," the Wisconsin governor told ABC's News David Muir in an exclusive interview Sunday when asked if his soon-to-be rival was a name of the past or future.
Walker said voters "want a new, fresh face to lead this country going forward."
"Not just Republicans, but I hear a whole lot of independents and even some discerning Democrats say that," he said.
The interview came ahead of Walker's official announcement on social media this morning.
“I'm in. I'm running for President of the United States because Americans deserve a leader who will fight and win for them," Walker said in an early morning Facebook post, along with a video in which he explains how his record in Wisconsin distinguishes him from the rest of the Republican field.
"In Wisconsin, we didn't nibble around the edges. 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 - and people's lives are better because of it," Walker says in the video."We fought and won. In the Republican field, there are some who are good fighters, but they haven't won those battles. And there are others who've won elections, but haven't consistently taken on the big fights. We showed you can do both."
"I am running for President to fight and win for the American people," he continues in the video. "Without sacrificing our principles, we won three elections in four years in a blue state. We did it by leading. Now, we need to do the same thing for America. It’s not too late to make our country great again. Join Our cause and help us fight and win for America.”
Walker will formally kick off his campaign at an announcement event Monday evening at the Waukesha County Expo Center, which holds symbolic weight as the place where he sealed his rise to political stardom. It is the same spot where Walker declared victory following a 2012 recall election.
Walker's rise to national prominence began in 2011, when he passed a controversial agenda to repair the state's budget shortfalls by revoking most of the state's public unions of their collective bargaining rights.
A recall election followed, with Walker's opponents gaining more than a million signatures to petition for his premature removal from office. But Walker would go on to survive the recall with a larger margin of the vote than he won by in 2010, making history as the only governor in U.S. history to withstand a recall.
