Scott Walker

Scott Walker is the Republican governor of Wisconsin whose clash with public employee unions made him a national name in 2011. Walker was born in Colorado, the son of a pastor. The family moved to Plainfield, Iowa and then in 1977 on to Delevan, Wisconsin, where Scott Walker graduated from high school. He entered Marquette University in 1986, worked for IBM while in school, then left in 1990 without graduating, having taken a marketing job with a local office of the American Red Cross. Walker ran for the Wisconsin state assembly that year and lost, but he won a special election for the same post in 1993. Walker served for nine years and then was elected Milwaukee County Executive in a special election in 2002. There Walker relentlessly cut costs, scaling back the government workforce by 20%. After a losing run for governor in 2006 he ran and won in 2010, campaigning on his reputation as a budget hawk. Shortly after taking office he set off a firestorm in the capitol by leading a charge to restrict collective-bargaining rights for public workers. The decision led to weeks of protests by teachers, police, and other public employees who rallied in and around the state capitol. He married his wife, Tonette, in 1992, when he was 25 and she was 36. They have two sons Matthew and Alexander.