MADISON, Wis. — Three years after stripping public employee unions of the right to collectively bargain, Gov. Scott Walker began this election year by introducing workers who had found jobs since he took office. A dozen stood with him in the State Capitol, dressed for the workplace: a nursing assistant, an accountant, a maintenance technician at Milwaukee Valve.

“These are the faces of an improving economy in our state,” said Mr. Walker in his recent State of the State speech, as news of an unexpected budget surplus was finally driving his approval rating over 50 percent during a tumultuous first term. “Wisconsin is going back to work.”

And with that election-year message, he was off last week to Dallas to collect contributions at the home of a real estate billionaire, Harlan Crow — a testament to the national profile his antiunion efforts, tax cuts and victory in a bitter recall election have gained him with major Republican donors.

Mr. Walker is one of eight new Republican governors facing re-election who swept into office in 2010 in states that President Obama won two years earlier, driven by the Tea Party at the height of its influence. Mr. Obama clawed back in 2012 to win each state again.