Scott Walker Quitting Presidential Campaign, NYT Reports

Scott Walker is likely to become the second major Republican to drop out of the presidential race, the New York Times Reports. Former Texas Gov. Perry dropped out of the race last week. There are still more than a dozen candidates in the race. The union-busting Wisconsin governor was considered to be one of the most conservative and most viable candidates when he announced his bid for the White House in April. The candidate did not immediately confirm or deny the reports, which were echoed by Politico.

Peaking at 12 percent in national polls in March, according to HuffPo, Walker lost ground after Jeb Bush, Donald Trump and other candidates joined the race.

Just yesterday the candidate was campaigning in Iowa. This morning, he posted a video of a campaign stop on his Twitter feed. However, the candidate is scheduled to suspend his campaign Monday night in an address from Madison, Wisconsin.

Thanks @DanZumbach for the kind words. We're here to fight and win in Iowa! #IAcaucus - SW https://t.co/AgZF9QOtCr

— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) September 21, 2015

Later in the day, the candidates tweets focused on accomplishments in his home state.

Support for Walker has struggled to keep momentum in a campaign that focused on his fight against organized labor, as the main issue in the campaign has shifted to immigration.

Walker failed to pivot effectively to the immigration issue, and was criticized by conservatives for previously supporting the dream act, as well as immigration reform. Walker later switched his position on how to treat immigrants in the country illegally, saying that they should not have a pathway to citizenship.

He even went even further on the anti-immigration spectrum, arguing for a reduction in legal immigration. Yet Walker failed to become the face of anti-immigration policies. That mantle has be carried by Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

With Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio guarding the softer-toned and oftentimes less restrictive side of the debate within the GOP, Walker had nowhere to turn: the grassroots vote was gone, the moderate vote was gone, and the anti-union support wasn’t as important.

Dwindling support led to dwindling financial support, as donors looked to more viable candidates.

“Donors have totally dried up for Walker,” an anonymous donor told the Times.

Which Republican candidate will be next to drop out? Here are a list of candidates that were polling above 10 percent in 2015, but have tanked to below 5 percent in recent polling, according to HuffPo.

• Mike Huckabee
• Rand Paul
• Chris Christie