AMHERST, N.H. -- Don’t believe the rumors, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said during a campaign swing here on Thursday. He is going to compete hard to try to win the New Hampshire primary.
The Midwestern governor, who has for months been leading in the polls in Iowa, responded forcefully when questioned by a reporter about whether he intended to focus on securing his standing there at the expense of downplaying New Hampshire, where former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has been the early Republican frontrunner.
“I think that’s a narrative being pushed by other campaigns,” Walker said, declining to elaborate on which rivals he believed were suggesting his campaign would be Iowa-centric. “We’ve been here, at my recollection, seven different days already this year.”
Walker announced his candidacy on Monday and is in the middle of a six-day swing through all four of the early primary and caucus states: Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
His campaign’s emphasis on Iowa, however, is reflected in his plan to spend three full days there during this trip and hold 10 public events — almost twice as many stops as he is scheduled to make during the trip in the other three states combined.
New Hampshire’s famously demanding voters can be particularly attuned to perceptions that presidential candidates are focusing their early efforts elsewhere, a sensitivity that Walker appeared eager to address when he noted that he is returning to the state next weekend, in addition to the full day he is spending here on Thursday.
“For me, New Hampshire’s a lot like major portions of my state, Wisconsin, both demographically and geographically, so we feel a kinship,” he said.
Before delivering his stump speech to a large crowd that had come out to see him at Joey’s Diner, Walker addressed an overflow audience outside the diner from the bed of a red pickup truck.
Once inside, he introduced himself as someone who has “fought and won” in blue Wisconsin on hot-button issues ranging from limiting collective bargaining rights for public employees to defunding Planned Parenthood and requiring photo IDs in order to vote.
Walker emphasized heavily the everyman persona he has cultivated during his decades in politics. He had many in the large crowd nodding when he spoke about how he and his wife, Tonette, liked to shop for the best sales at Kohl’s.
Speaking to reporters after the event, Walker said that while he is a social conservative, social issues “aren’t what I’m running on,” noting that he carried independents in all three of his winning gubernatorial campaigns in Wisconsin.
He said that he intended to campaign often in New Hampshire not only ahead of the February primary, but also during the general election.
The Democratic nominee has won the state, which has been trending to the left over the last decade, in each of the last three presidential elections. But Walker argued that he is the Republican candidate who is best equipped to defeat the 2016 Democratic frontrunner.
“What makes us a great candidate against Hillary Clinton is three simple things,” he said. “I’m a new fresh face; she’s a candidate of the past. I’m about as anti-Washington as you can get; she embodies everything that’s wrong with Washington. And I’ve actually gotten something done. I’ve gotten real things done in a tough state. I think you’d be hard-pressed to even find supporters of hers who could tell you she’s done much more than accumulating frequent flier miles traveling all around the world.”