Monday, September 21, 2015

Scott Walker press conference at Edgewater Hotel: Please join me, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, John Kasich, Chris Christie, Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal, Lindsey Graham, George Pataki, and Jim Gilmore



Transcript

Good afternoon.

First of all, thank you all for coming.

Before I say anything about our campaign, I just want to say on behalf of Tonette, our family, we want to extend our sympathies to the family of Supreme Court justice Patrick Crooks.  We will let the Supreme Court make the official announcement like that, but we just want to send on our prayers and our sympathy to him and his family, certainly his wife and his children and all of his extended family. And we'll have more to comment on that in the days to come. 

As a kid, I was drawn to Ronald Reagan because he was a Republican and a conservative.  Most of all, I admired him because of his eternal optimism in the American people.  That thought came into my head when we were all standing on the stage at the Reagan Library last Wednesday.  Ronald Reagan was good for America because he was an optimist.

Sadly, the debate taking place in the Republican party today is not focused on that optimistic view of America.  Instead, it has drifted into personal attacks.  In the end, I believe that the voters want to be for something and not against someone.  Instead of talking about how bad things are, we want to hear how we can make them better for everyone.  We need to get back to the basics of our party. 

We are a party that believes that people create jobs, not the government.  The best way to grow the economy is to get the government out of the way and build from the ground up.  

We are a party that believes the way to measure success in government is by how many people are no longer dependent on the government because we ultimately believe in the dignity of work.  

We are the party that believes that a strong military leads to peace through strength. and that that will protect our children and future generations, that good will ultimately triumph over evil.  

We are a party that believes in the American people, not the federal government.

These ideas will help us win the election next fall, and more important, these ideas will make our country great again.  To  focus the debate on these types of issues will require leadership.

I was in church yesterday, the pastor's words reminded me that the Bible is full of stories about people who were called to be leaders in unusual ways.  Today I believe that I am being called to lead by helping to clear the field in this race so that a positive, conservative message can rise to the top of the field.  With this in mind, I will suspend my campaign immediately.  I encourage other Republican Presidential candidates to do the same, so that the voters can focus on a limited number of candidates who can offer a positive, conservative alternative to the current front-runner.   This is fundamentally important to the future of the party, and more important, to our country.  [emphasis added]

This is a difficult decision, as so many wonderful people stepped up to support our campaign.  Tonette and I are thankful for the many outstanding volunteers and the excellent staff that helped us throughout the campaign.  You have all been like family to us. Speaking of family, I want to personally thank my wife Tonette, who has been a rock, as well as our two amazing sons, Matt and Alex.  I thank my parents and my brother David and his family and all my other family and friends for their love and support.  Most of all I want to thank God.  I want to thank God for his abundant grace.  Win or lose, it has always been more than enough.

Thank you.

At which point Walker immediately walks away from podium.



No questions, please.   

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