Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign manager Rick Wiley shot down criticism that the governor needed a change in leadership to jumpstart his campaign after Wednesday’s presidential debate.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Wiley told the Capital Times in Wisconsin. “The vicious rumor cycle has begun. Reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated.”
In the aftermath of the governor’s declining poll numbers across the country and in early nominating states, supporters and allies of Walker called for a change in the campaign’s senior leadership, as the Washington Examiner previously reported.
Walker has dropped to tenth in the Examiner’s latest power rankings.
Following Wednesday’s debate, rumors swirled that the governor’s donors had grown increasingly antsy for a major change and that the governor and Wiley would hold a private call with donors. Billionaire businessman Stanley Hubbard, whose donations to Walker-aligned groups climb into the six figures, told the AP that he would start giving money to Carly Fiorina, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie now in addition to Walker.
Meanwhile, Walker’s team looked to spin the debate’s results in their favor. In a statement released immediately following the debate, Wiley declared Walker the winner of the debate and said, “He put Donald Trump in his place early on, and the billionaire never recovered.” But Wiley nearly simultaneously tweeted that he found CNN’s lack of attention to Walker “ridiculous.”
Walker received less airtime than any of the other Republican candidates to take the stage, including those who appeared in the undercard debate, as NPR noted. In a radio interview on Thursday morning, host Laura Ingraham asked Walker about the eight minutes of airtime he received compared to Donald Trump’s 18 minutes.
“And I had to fight for that, oh my goodness,” Walker interjected. “The format was bizarre. I was talking to a number of the candidates afterward. Dr. Carson and I were talking, it’s just an unusual format, but I think it was driven by ratings.”
The audience that tuned in Wednesday made the debate the highest viewed program in the history of CNN. What effect, if any, the debate will have on the governor’s campaign remains to be seen. But the governor is already out with a new web video titled “Won’t Back Down” that showcases clips of the governor clashing with Trump. Walker will return to the Midwest this weekend and visit the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference in Michigan.
