Scott Walker

He left in good standing with a 2.59/4.0 grade point average, but without having obtained a degree.

Walker has said that he dropped out of college when he received a full-time job offer from the American Red Cross.

Scott Kevin Walker (born November 2, 1967) is an American politician who served as the 45th governor of Wisconsin from 2011 to 2019.

Walker was born on November 2, 1967, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the elder of two sons of Patricia Ann "Pat" (née Fitch; born December 30, 1938), a bookkeeper, and Llewellyn Scott "Llew" Walker (May 19, 1939 – October 7, 2018), a Baptist minister.

The family moved to Plainfield, Iowa, in 1970, where Llew worked as pastor in the local Baptist Church, TBC, and served on the municipal council.

When Walker was ten years old, the family moved to Delavan, Wisconsin, where his father continued to work as a minister, at the First Baptist Church of Delavan.

In 1985, when Walker was in high school, he attended and represented Wisconsin at two weeks of American Legion-sponsored training in leadership and government at Badger Boys State in Wisconsin and Boys Nation in Washington, D.C. While at the event, he met President Ronald Reagan and had a photo taken with him.

Walker has credited the experience with solidifying his interest in public service and giving him the "political bug".

He attained the highest rank, Eagle Scout, in the Boy Scouts of America, and graduated from Delavan-Darien High School in 1986.

In the fall of 1986, Walker enrolled at Marquette University.

Within a few weeks of beginning his collegiate studies, Walker became a student senator and led a committee investigating alleged misuse of funds by student leaders.

During the same year, he volunteered for Tommy Thompson's gubernatorial campaign.

In 1988, Walker lost a "fiercely-fought" campaign for student government president.

Walker led the anti-abortion Students for Life group at Marquette.

Walker discontinued his studies at Marquette in the spring of 1990, having earned 94 of the 128 minimum credits needed to graduate.

In 1990, at age 22, Walker ran for Milwaukee's 7th District seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly.

He won the Republican nomination, but lost in the general election to incumbent Democrat Gwen Moore, receiving less than one-third of the vote.

He was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1992, representing a district in western Milwaukee County.

In 1993, Walker moved to Wauwatosa, a suburb of Milwaukee, and ran in a special election in the more conservative 14th legislative district, based around Wauwatosa.

He defeated Democrat Chris Ament, son of then-Milwaukee County Executive Tom Ament.

During the campaign, Walker backed welfare reform and opposed the expansion of mass transit.

He supported a cap on state spending and said that the law on resolving labor disputes with local government employees needed to be reformed.

Walker received the endorsements of Wisconsin Right to Life and The Milwaukee Sentinel, which called him a fiscal conservative and noted his anti-abortion, tough-on-crime, and pro-welfare reform positions.

As a freshman legislator in 1993, he co-sponsored right-to-work legislation.

A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as Milwaukee County executive from 2002 to 2010.

Born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Walker was raised in Plainfield, Iowa and in Delavan, Wisconsin.

In 2002, Walker was elected Milwaukee County Executive in a special election following the resignation of F. Thomas Ament; he was elected to a full term in 2004 and was re-elected in 2008.

He was re-elected four times, serving until 2002 when he became a county executive.

While in the Assembly, Walker was interested in criminal justice matters and chaired the Committees on Correctional Facilities, and Corrections and the Courts.

Over the years, he served on a number of other committees, including Health, Census and Redistricting, Financial Institutions, and Housing.

Walker ran for Governor of Wisconsin in 2006, but dropped out of the race before the primary election.

He ran again in 2010 and won.

Shortly after his inauguration in 2011, Walker gained national attention by introducing the Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill; the legislation proposed to effectively eliminate collective bargaining for most Wisconsin public employees.

In response, opponents of the bill protested at the Wisconsin State Capitol and Senate Democrats left the state in an effort to prevent the bill from being passed.

Nevertheless, the Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill became law in March 2011.

Opposition to the law led to an attempt to recall Walker from office in 2012.

Walker prevailed in the recall election, becoming the first of two incumbent governors in the history of the United States to win a recall election, the other being California governor Gavin Newsom in 2021.

Walker was re-elected in 2014, defeating Democratic Madison School Board member Mary Burke.

Following heavy speculation about his presidential ambitions, Walker launched a campaign for the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential election; however, he withdrew from the race after only two months as a result of declining support in polls.

Walker sought a third term as governor in 2018, but was narrowly defeated by Democrat Tony Evers.