The POD is Milwaukee County Executive and former member of the Wisconsin State Assembly running unopposed in the Wisconsin Gubernatorial Republican Primary of 2006 (no Congressman Mark Green). Despite 2006 being a bad year for the Republican Party, Walker narrowly defeats incumbent Governor Jim Doyle in November. As OTL, Walker easily wins re-election in 2010 over his Democratic opponent, Former Congressman and Mayor of Milwaukee, Tom Barrett. Walker then decides to announce his candidacy for president sometime in early or mid-2011. Can Walker win the Republican Party's presidential nomination over OTL's Mitt Romney? Maybe for starters, he could win the Iowa Republican Caucus, forcing Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, and Michele Bachmann to drop out. As OTL, Romney wins New Hampshire, forcing Huntsman to drop out. As OTL, Gingrich wins South Carolina and Romney wins Nevada, but maybe have Walker win second place in both contests. All Walker would need is to get the most out of Super Tuesday. Who do you think his Vice Presidential nominee would be? I was considering Marco Rubio, because in OTL 2016, he mentioned it as a possibility. How do you think he does against Barack Obama in November?
 
I'm a little bit skeptical of the premise because not a single governorship (or Senate seat or House seat) held by a Democrat was won by a Republican in 2006. And Doyle's victory over Green was not that narrow (7.4%) so I don't see why Walker would win that year.
 
The POD is Milwaukee County Executive and former member of the Wisconsin State Assembly running unopposed in the Wisconsin Gubernatorial Republican Primary of 2006 (no Congressman Mark Green). Despite 2006 being a bad year for the Republican Party, Walker narrowly defeats incumbent Governor Jim Doyle in November. As OTL, Walker easily wins re-election in 2010 over his Democratic opponent, Former Congressman and Mayor of Milwaukee, Tom Barrett. Walker then decides to announce his candidacy for president sometime in early or mid-2011. Can Walker win the Republican Party's presidential nomination over OTL's Mitt Romney? Maybe for starters, he could win the Iowa Republican Caucus, forcing Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, and Michele Bachmann to drop out. As OTL, Romney wins New Hampshire, forcing Huntsman to drop out. As OTL, Gingrich wins South Carolina and Romney wins Nevada, but maybe have Walker win second place in both contests. All Walker would need is to get the most out of Super Tuesday. Who do you think his Vice Presidential nominee would be? I was considering Marco Rubio, because in OTL 2016, he mentioned it as a possibility. How do you think he does against Barack Obama in November?

Walker could win the 2012 Republican nomination. He'll be seen as a fresh conservative alternative to a "Massachusetts Moderate" Mitt Romney. After Walker's banner second term start against the labor unions in the state, Walker vaults to 2nd place by September 2011, but faces significant challenges:
  • He's a second term governor who is inexperienced with Washington
  • He has virtually zero foreign policy or national security experience
  • He is still seen as a blank slate.
He goes on to beat Romney, Gingrich, Santorum, and Ron Paul. He picks Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as his vice presidential pick on August 10, weeks before the Tampa Convention.
 

Minty_Fresh

Banned
Wisconsin Republicanism is entirely based off of turning out the base and playing towards suburban NIMBYism. The Rubio pick helps with Hispanics, but unless he gets tough on the border in the primary, or at least says enough to win the primary and at the same time alienate Hispanics with varying levels of sincerity (like Romney did), he won't be the nominee.

Walker's well known anti-union stances might allow him to raise more money than Romney, but it will kill him in the Rust Belt. Romney was often unfairly portrayed as a robber baron in the summer of 2012 and it killed his chances to win Rust Belt swing states. Walker might not be a robber baron but he has a solid anti-union track record that won't help him. And his total lack of foreign policy experience makes him pretty undesirable, as he wasn't able to do much more than color inside the lines (Iran bad, Israel good, Europe meh, fuck China sort of but keep trading with them) in his OTL attempt.
 
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