Gov. Scott Walker Kicks Off Re-Election Bus Tour

Gov. Scott Walker began a three-day campaign bus tour of Wisconsin on Monday, as he seeks a third term as governor.

Walker kicked off his tour at a metal fabricating plant in Rothschild, near Wausau. Speaking to about 150 supporters exactly one year before the 2018 election, Walker predicted it would not be an easy campaign. He said millions of dollars of what he called “special interest money” would be spent to defeat him.

“We took the power out of the hands of the big government special interests and put it firmly in the hands of the hard working taxpayers of this state, and given the chance I’ll do it again and again and again,” Walker said.

In order to win, Walker said he would need “an army of grass-roots volunteers.”

Walker pledged to continue cutting taxes, make government more efficient and address the state’s opioid problem.

He got his biggest applause from the crowd when he said he would drug test welfare recipients.

“We also now are going to be requiring that everyone getting public assistance is able to pass a drug test, because we know there are jobs out there and public assistance should be more like a trampoline than like a hammock,” Walker said.

He also promised to continue to freeze tuition at University of Wisconsin System schools.

“From one end of the state to the other, we are freezing tuition not one year, not two years, but six years in a row,” Walker said. “We have frozen tuition to make college more affordable for our students and the working families that support them.”

Walker repeated many of the themes from his re-election kick-off speech Sunday in Waukesha, saying he has cut both taxes and unemployment during his two terms as governor.