Perhaps no other GOP candidate inflames the left like Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Since 2011, when they gathered at the state capitol to protest his union reforms, left-wing agitators have swarmed around the governor at virtually every appearance like gnats around a jar of vinegar.
As National Journal notes, anti-Walker protesters have even taken to interrupting the candidate’s meals while he’s on the campaign trail.
A Des Moines Register staff member told me Walker was the only candidate at this year’s presidential soapbox who attracted hecklers. So far, anyway.
For Walker, being dogged by disruptive protesters is a fact of life.
But the Wisconsin governor has figured out how to integrate the heckling into his campaign speeches, and he demonstrated this at the Iowa State Fair on Monday.
“The left doesn’t want me to be your nominee because they know that I don’t just talk. I actually deliver on my promises,” Walker told the crowd, as union protesters near the front tried to shout him down.
“When it comes to safety, we need a president who has the courage to stand up to anyone in the world and do what is necessary to protect our children and our grandchildren. If I am president, I will take the fight to ISIS, instead of waiting until the fight comes to us,” Walker said to the cheering crowd.
“Again. Unintimidated. I am unintimidated by you, sir, or anyone else out there,” Walker said, bending down to address one particular protester. “I will fight for the American people over and over and over again. You want someone who’s tested? I’m right here. This is what happened in Wisconsin. We will not back down, we will do what is necessary to defend the American people going forward.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWdAnbD20kw
One woman shouted, “Black lives matter!”
She was part of a group of nearly 50 protesters who took a bus from Wisconsin to protest Walker.
The group is reportedly agitating for “a $15 minimum wage and better health benefits.”
#BlackLivesMatter activists disrupt #ScottWalker Q&A. #IowaStateFair pic.twitter.com/HY6GcnDIl4
— Nice Deb (@NiceDeb) August 17, 2015
“If you give me the chance, I will not be intimidated, just like I wasn’t intimidated here or anywhere else,” Walker told the crowd.
When Walker is in Minnesota Tuesday to deliver an anti-ObamaCare speech, chances are good that he will have yet another opportunity to show that he is unintimidated by protesters.
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