DENVER — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker issued one of the strongest statements of any Republican 2016 candidate in opposition to the Supreme Court’s gay marriage decision. “I believe this Supreme Court decision is a grave mistake,” Walker said in a statement on his Facebook page Friday. “As a result of this decision, the only alternative left for the American people is to support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to reaffirm the ability of the states to continue to define marriage.”
Yet just a day later, when Walker addressed a large group of conservatives, many of them social conservatives, at the Western Conservative Summit here in Denver, he gave a stump speech that didn’t even mention gay marriage or the Court’s decision.
The event was put on by the Centennial Institute, which is part of Colorado Christian University. Some other candidates’ statements critical of the court decision — most notably Mike Huckabee’s — were favorably received by the crowd. Yet Walker stayed away from the topic.
Instead, the Wisconsin governor focused his remarks firmly on the economy, his own accomplishments in office, and national security. After beginning with a salute to those in the crowd who served in the military, Walker explained that he had turned Wisconsin around from the job losses and high taxes he inherited when he first became governor.
Walker discussed his state’s falling unemployment rate, rising labor participation rate, balanced budget, and school hiring changes. The list continued: Defunding Planned Parenthood. Passing concealed carry. Right-to-work. Photo ID for voting.
That naturally led to Walker’s presidential pitch: “I tell you all of that not to brag — well, maybe not too much — but rather to tell you that in a state like Wisconsin, a state that hasn’t gone Republican for president since 1984 … if a state like that can take ideas that are big and bold and have them enacted … if we can do it in Wisconsin, we can certainly do it in Washington and all across America.”
Walker moved on to the policy prescription part of his speech. Repeal Obamacare. Cut taxes. Expand U.S. energy production. Eliminate frivolous lawsuits. Improve education. They are all part of what he called his growth agenda, which in turn is one of three parts of the foundation for a Walker candidacy.
The second part, which Walker spent far less time discussing, is reform, which he said will mean policies that result in fewer Americans being dependent on the government.
The third part of Walker’s three-part foundation is safety, which is the word he prefers to use for what most people call national security. He touched on the Islamic State, Iran, Yemen, and the greater threat from radical Islamic terrorism. “Even though as a governor, I don’t deal with this every day, this has been at the top of my list of concerns for the last year or so,” Walker said.
Walker interspersed policy prescriptions with tales of his own blue-collar background. “My brother and I, we realize we didn’t inherit fame or fortune from our family. What we got was the belief that if you work hard and you play by the rules you can do and be anything you want in America. That’s the American dream.”
Finally, Walker added another pitch for himself: He is not only a fighter, he is a fighter who has won the battles he’s entered, and he can fight and win more battles as president. He finished with a story about a trip he took to Philadelphia and a visit to Independence Hall.
No gay marriage. No “grave mistake.” No constitutional amendment to allow the states to define marriage. No social issues at all, for that matter.
In a brief question-and-answer afterward, radio host Hugh Hewitt touched on those issues by asking Walker how he would find constitutional originalists to serve on the federal courts. Walker said he has already done that as governor and that he has picked judges who “understand with absolute certainty that the sole role of the judiciary … is to uphold the Constitution of the United States and those laws duly enacted under it, no more, no less.”
But that was it. In all, Walker’s performance was a solid conservative appeal for support. But it would have been the same even if the Supreme Court had never taken up gay marriage. Even with a solidly conservative crowd, even with a lot of social conservatives in the audience, and even with the news of the Court’s ruling fresh in everyone’s mind, Walker stayed away.
UPDATE: Walker spokeswoman AshLee Strong responds: “Governor Walker delivered his stump speech as he usually does on the road. His views on marriage and the Supreme Court’s decision to take power away from the states are very clear and it’s not practical to work every view on every issue into every speech. He emphatically stressed the importance of religious liberty in the subsequent Q and A session with Hugh Hewitt.”
