Scott Walker: I called Betsy DeVos after protesters blocked school

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday said he called Education Secretary Betsy DeVos after protesters recently blocked her from entering a D.C. school, and told conservative activists he went through something similar in Wisconsin when he was trying to get to an event to read to children.

“I called Betsy DeVos, who’s a good friend of mine, and I said, ’You know what? Been there. Done that,’” Mr. Walker said.

He said protesters back home in Wisconsin had literally glued a door shut to an elementary school where Mr. Walker was going to read to children.

“Now, the good news is that school was not to be deterred. They actually took the doors off the hinges and we were able to read to the kids,” he said to cheers and applause.

Mr. Walker, a 2016 GOP presidential candidate, was speaking at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

Congressional Republicans have been contending with rowdy town halls back home during their current recess and Mr. Walker, who famously took on public sector unions in his state, recounted some of his other experiences with protesters to the crowd.

He said he and his family faced threats, but a tipping point came when protesters dressed as zombies disrupted a law-enforcement torch run for the Special Olympics.

“At that time, it was a turning point indeed because the people in our state, no matter where they stood on the issues, could see that the protesters were not like them,” he said. “I mean, who messes up an event for Special Olympic athletes? It was just remarkable.”

Mr. Walker, first elected as governor in 2010, survived a high-profile 2012 recall effort before winning again in 2014.

He soared to the top of some of the early polling on the 2016 GOP presidential primary field, but ended up suspending his campaign in September 2015 after about two months of being an official candidate.