Republican Gov. Scott Walker became a conservative icon by breaking the teachers union in Wisconsin. Seven years later, he’s facing the political fight of his life against the state schools superintendent, and trying to reinvent himself.

His likely Democratic opponent is head of the Wisconsin school system, Tony Evers, meaning the election likely will be won or lost on how moderate voters view Walker’s turnaround on education.


Rather than run from the controversy that nearly shut down Wisconsin state government in 2011, Walker is embracing it in his reelection bid. He insists that battling the teachers unions, giving school districts more control over their staffs and balancing the state budget have made schools better.

"I am proud to be the pro-education governor because our reforms are working," Walker said in a statement to POLITICO.

It’s a highly risky strategy. The crackdown on teachers made Walker a national hero among Republicans who have long disdained the political power of teachers unions. Walker had a brief presidential run in 2016, but now he’s trailing Evers in head-to-head polls in Wisconsin. The Democratic primary field remains divided, with eight candidates competing for the nomination, but most public polling has shown Evers in the lead.

Already the two-term governor's reelection campaign is rolling out a steady stream of education-pegged ads aimed at moderate voters. A new poll from NBC News and Marist shows Walker trailing Evers in a head-to-head matchup.

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Evers, for his part, is more than happy to make the race about education policy.

One of the few statewide officials elected with Democratic support, Evers was first elected in 2009 and cruised to a third term last year. Before entering politics, he was a school district superintendent, a high school principal and a teacher.

Walker is being corralled into focusing on education and defending his record, Evers told POLITICO.

"It borders on a joke," he said. "The proof is in the pudding. ... I don't think many people believe him."

But Walker spokesman Brian Reisinger said the governor isn't playing defense. Walker's campaign ads tout the benefits of Act 10 — explosive legislation he championed in 2011 that gutted the collective bargaining rights of labor unions and devastated the resources and membership rolls of the state teachers union.

Walker argues that the law reformed collective bargaining and gave school districts more control over their funding and personnel.

"Thanks to our reforms, local school leaders can staff based on merit and pay based on performance," Walker said in a statement. "That means they can put the best and the brightest in the classroom and keep them there."

His ads also tout his budget proposal, which was adopted by the state Legislature last year and included a $649 million boost in state education funding. The increase was about $227 million more than Evers had asked for — and Evers praised Walker’s budget at the time as a “pro-kid budget.” Walker is also touting increases in funding for rural schools.

Evers has gone after Walker for cutting education funding or keeping it flat during the early years of his administration — saying the cuts prompted Wisconsinites to raise property taxes — in addition to attacking teachers by essentially dismantling their collective bargaining rights.

Evers took credit for “90 percent” of Walker’s recent budget proposal and said that if elected, he would seek to increase funding for public education. Evers also said he would pursue a full repeal of Act 10, or at least seek to roll back what he could with a Republican-controlled state Legislature. On Monday, Evers announced that he’s seeking $600 million more in special education funding in the next biennial budget, up from $369 million.

Nathan Henry, a Democratic strategist who served as Evers’ campaign manager earlier in the 2018 cycle, said an emphasis on education puts Walker at a disadvantage.

“I'm not really sure why Scott Walker would want to talk about his education record. It's a pretty bad record,” Henry said. “If you look at the overall breadth that he's made as governor — the cuts that they've made to education far exceed any money that they've actually put into education.”

“So I guess I can't exactly explain why Walker would want to make it a focus of his campaign except for maybe to inoculate himself from future attacks,” he said. “I think it's easy to see why Tony would want to see the campaign play out on education. The guy spent his entire life in education.”

Walker has also previously sought deep cuts to higher education and weakened tenure protections for professors at public colleges and universities.

There’s an extra incentive for Walker to focus on his education record: He can talk about what he’s done while the Democratic field, once a chaotic dozen-plus candidates, is still slowly shrinking to a more manageable group.

Brandon Scholz, a Republican strategist who served as chief of staff to then-Rep. Scott Klug, said the governor will win any fight on education against Evers because a chief executive‘s responsibilities are bigger.

Scholz predicted Evers will try to discredit Walker by saying he did little and cut education spending. “Gov. Walker will come back and say, 'Look at this last budget we've done. We've done this and done this and done this,'” Scholz said.

“At some point it's a 'he said, he said,' and Evers is neutralized,” he said. “I don't see Evers having a one-up on the governor on education just because he's had this job. The governor's pulpit and budget is a lot bigger than Tony Evers' department of public instruction.”

State Republicans have attacked Evers in ads for failing to revoke the license of middle school teacher Andrew Harris in 2014 because Harris watched porn on his work computer. But state law at the time set a high bar, stating that students must be in danger for a teacher to lose his license.

Walker’s relationship with the soft-spoken Evers has also deteriorated as Evers has eyed a run for governor. The two are locked in a legal battle over how much authority Evers has to write his own education policies.

Evers was also in charge last year of pulling together a plan for holding Wisconsin schools accountable for student learning and progress under the Every Student Succeeds Act, a federal education law that replaced No Child Left Behind in 2015.

Walker refused to sign off on that plan before it was sent to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for approval, telling Evers in a stinging letter that “it does little to challenge the status quo for the benefit of Wisconsin’s students.”

Evers contended that the race hasn’t affected his working relationship with the governor.

“We can walk and chew gum at the same time,” he said.