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ByScottBauerandJulie Bykowicz The Associated Press MADISON, WIS. Struggling to generate fundraising and enthusiasm, Republican Scott Walker abandoned his 2016 presidential bid on Monday, exiting a turbu- lent race that saw him rise to front-runner and fall to afterthought in a matter of months. The Wisconsin governor, who cast himself as a fighter and a winner, planned to announce his decision at a news conference Mon- day evening in Madison, becoming the second ma- jor GOP candidate to quit the race. "It has been communi- cated to me that he is get- ting out of the race," said Iowa state Sen. Brad Zaun, who endorsed Walker ear- lier this year. "I'm proud of our efforts in Iowa. And I think he's an incredible candidate. It's unfortunate." One of the last Repub- licans to enter the race, Walker will join former Texas Gov. Rick Perry as one of the first to leave it, having been unable to ad- just to the popularity of bil- lionaire businessman Don- ald Trump or break out in either of GOP's first two de- bates.YetcomparedtoPerry, Walker's fall was dramatic. He was thought to be a top-tier presidential candi- date for much of the year and built a massive na- tional organization, with paid staff spread across the country, that dwarfed many of his rivals in scale and scope. "I'm not sure what went wrong," said Iowa state Sen. Mark Costello, who en- dorsed Walker earlier this year. "I don't think he made any really big mistakes, but people lost enthusiasm." He will return to his job in Wisconsin as gover- nor, where his term runs through 2018. Walker, 47, tried to ap- peal to religious conserva- tives, tea party conserva- tives and the more tradi- tional GOP base. He tried to cast himself as an unintim- idated conservative fighter who had a record of victo- ries in a state that hasn't voted Republican for pres- ident since 1984. He came to the race hav- ing won election in Wis- consin three times in four years, and having gained a national following among donors and conservatives by successfully pushing his state to strip union bargain- ing rights from its public workers. Walker pointed to those Wisconsin wins, in a state that twice voted for Barack Obama as president, as signs that he could success- fully advance a conservative agenda as the GOP's White House nominee. He called himself "ag- gressively normal" and campaigned on a Harley- Davidson motorcycle, and made a splash in January with a well-received speech before religious conserva- tives in Iowa. Groups backing Walker went on to raise $26 mil- lion, tapping wealthy do- nors whom Walker had cultivated in his years as governor and during his successful effort to win a recall election in 2012. Walker's primary super PAC, called Unintimidated, had just begun spending, making a major push in Iowa — reflecting the gov- ernor's last-ditch strategy to place all of his chips on that first-to-vote state. The super PAC told fed- eral regulators in a filing Friday that it had spent more than $1.6 million boosting Walker this year, most recently on a $50,000 mailing to Iowa voters. But Walker was unable to adjust to Trump's rise and repeatedly had trouble clearly stating his position on several issues. He took days to clarify whether he supported end- ing birthright citizenship. He initially showed interest in building a wall between the U.S. and Canada, only to later laugh it off as ridic- ulous. Walker also declared he wasn't a career politi- cian, despite having held public office for 22 straight years. After Trump, Ben Car- son and Carly Fiorina dis- placed Walker at the top of the polls, Walker took a more aggressive approach, promising to "wreak havoc" on Washington. He vowed to take on unions as presi- dent, just as he did as Wis- consin governor, outlawing them for federal govern- ment workers and making the entire country right-to- work. But the anti-union pol- icy proposal fell flat; an- nounced in the days before the second GOP debate, it wasn't mentioned at all — by Walker or anyone else — on stage. While only Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Flor- ida Gov. Jeb Bush had more super PAC money available to boost their chances in the original 17-person 2016 Republican field, Walker struggled to generate money for his official cam- paign. He has yet to report fun- draising totals to federal regulators, but top fund- raisers and donors have said his plummeting poll numbers left them strug- gling to generate cash. Walker called his senior staff to the governor's man- sion in Madison on Mon- day to review recent poll- ing, in which he was mired at the bottom of the GOP field, and his campaign's fi- nances. "I'm disappointed," said Stanley Hubbard, a billion- airemediamogul fromMin- neapolis who had backed Walker's campaign. "He's a good man and would have been a good president." As word spread of his de- cision to exit the race, Re- publican operatives in Iowa working for other cam- paigns were already mak- ing plans to contact state lawmakers who had com- mitted to support Walker. The Wisconsin governor had assembled a campaign organization in every one of Iowa's 99 counties and had a number of state lawmak- ers committed to him. Cliff Hurst, one of Walk- er's New Hampshire co- chairs, was already plan- ning to shift to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's campaign. He said he knew about three days ago that "it was over" and had been discuss- ing an endorsement of Ru- bio as of Monday morning, before Walker's announce- ment became official. "It was personally hard, but you know when it's over. I knew when it was over," Hurst said. "I'm smart enough to know that when you are @ less than 1 per- cent that you've not going to get any money." POLITICS Wisconsin's Walker to drop out of presidential race ISAACBREKKEN—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE Republican presidential candidate Wisconsin Gov. 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