Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker spoke last among the Republican presidential contenders at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s conference in Washington, D.C., this weekend, and he appeared to talk longer than any other candidate to take the stage. Walker was welcomed with a standing ovation — and exited with one too.
Walker, the son of a Baptist minister, began his remarks by offering a prayer for the victims of the mass shooting in Charleston, S.C. He told the audience he refused to use the shooter’s name, and said, “It was racist, it was evil, it was something we all condemn — not just his acts, but his beliefs.”
The governor focused the remainder of his speech on growth, reform and safety — themes he has repeated often on the stump as he travels across the country.
“People create jobs, not the government,” Walker told the audience. “Reign in the regulations, once and for all repeal Obamacare.”
Rachel Miller, an attendee who told the Washington Examiner she had never seen him speak in person before, came away impressed. She said she thought his speech was very inspirational, but wondered whether other voters who do not follow politics or subscribe to her conservative beliefs would feel the same way.
Walker may not have encountered any hostile voters at the Road to the Majority event on Friday night, but his comments to reporters afterward appeared to indicate he was preparing for a fight for GOP primary voters’ support.
“There’s a lot of good fighters, but they haven’t done a lot here to win in Washington. There’s a lot of winners that haven’t taken on the big fights,” Walker told reporters. “But if we were to get in, that’s part of what we’re doing here in the “testing the waters” [committee] is to see if there are other Americans who share our belief that they want somebody who can fight and win for everyday taxpayers. And that’s what we’ve shown we can do in Wisconsin.”
Walker added that he intended to break new ground on the campaign trail.
“Well I think part of it’s going to be about, if we choose to get in, going to places around the country where Republican voters haven’t typically gone,” Walker told reporters. “What we’re going to do is not just have a specific strategy just for one group of voters in one part of the country. We’re going to tell a message that we think resonates all across the country.”
Earlier on Friday, Walker was in Philadelphia, Pa., for the Northeast Republican Leadership Conference. He won the conference’s straw poll with 25.3 percent of the vote, in a state the Republicans hope will swing there way in 2016.
The hosts of the Road to Majority event have yet to endorse a specific candidate. Ralph Reed, the president of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, may not have made up his mind already, but appeared to be hitting it off with Walker. The two dined together onstage at Friday night’s “Patriot Gala,” and Walker recalled his pleasant memories of working with Reed’s supporters in Wisconsin during his speech.
