LATimes...Scott Walker tries to prove he's a national contender for president

[mystery-ak]

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-scott-walker-trail-20150717-story.html

 By Noah Bierman contact the reporter

    Republican Party Scott Walker Lindsey O. Graham Rick Perry Nikki Haley Rick Santorum

As he rumbled through South Carolina this week, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker told his favorite story about shopping for clothes at Kohl’s department store and cobbling together so many discounts that “they’re paying me to buy the shirt.”

The tale drew chuckles from some of the 200 Republicans who came to see him at a Harley-Davidson dealership in North Charleston. But the details, including references to the “Kohl’s cash” coupons found in his wife’s purse, did not spark the same knowing nods that they did during his announcement speech in Wisconsin, where the chain is based and is a more entrenched symbol of middle-class culture.

The stump-speech anecdote points to one of Walker’s challenges as he opened his campaign for president by embarking on a whirlwind tour: proving he is a national contender who can win states beyond his Midwestern base.

continued..

[jmyrlefuller]

But those Midwestern states are going to be crucial for the Presidency. If he can make inroads in places like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, especially in the general election where those states have increasingly fallen to the Democrats as of late, he'll be a formidable force.