Scott Walker Bailing On 2016 Bid

Feehery predicted that former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Ohio Governor John Kasich will be the biggest beneficiaries of Walker’s exit.

Carson has yet to comment amid the backlash over his statement, but his campaign reported increased fundraising and 100,000 new Facebook friends in the last 24 hours.

Republican strategist Liz Mair, who was briefly hired by Walker before being forced out over her criticism of Iowa’s role in the nominating process, listed an array of causes to Walker’s demise on Twitter, including “misunderstanding the GOP base, its priorities and stances”, “pandering”, and “flip-flopping”.

Walker celebrated by becoming the first candidate to lease office space in Iowa, though he was still months away from officially announcing his candidacy. “I think he had too many people, many of them who didn’t know what they were doing”. Walker had a conference call with his major donors Thursday, reassuring them that he will continue his campaign.

Walker’s standing eroded as he struggled through weak debate performances, a series of awkward policy questions, and ceded ground to outsiders like Trump and Ben Carson among conservatives.

Scott Walker’s stunning fall to footnote in the 2016 race is just the latest in what should be a steady flow of GOP candidates looking for the door.

The son of a preacher with an oft-stated admiration for Ronald Reagan, Walker was seen as a potential consensus candidate between the various factions of the party: pro-business, tea party, evangelical Christian.

A CNN/ORC poll released on Sunday gave him less than 1 per cent support among Republican voters.

At the time, Walker promised that his record in the state – stripping away union power, lowering taxes, passing pro-life legislation and more – showed that he knew how to “fight and win for America“.

“Scott Walker has built really deep reservoirs of support around the country“, said Musser. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz planned to meet with one top Walker donor Monday night in New York.

“That’s been some of the effort this afternoon and going forward”, Bush told reporters after a campaign stop in northern Iowa.

The National Review also wrote about rumored problems within Walker’s campaign and its strategy, including “rumors of profligate spending” as his team sought to staff up early in the election season.

Both men are under 50 and hold a “next-generation appeal”, said Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster who is unaligned in the race, but offered his California home to Walker for a post-debate fundraiser last week.

“Obviously, I’m disappointed, first and foremost”, Westcott said.