Scott Walker under fire for hiring a pro-choice spokeswoman

Apparently some folks think a person who chose to work for Scott Walker isn't conservative enough

Published April 7, 2014 9:02PM (EDT)

Prominent members of Wisconsin's anti-choice community are finding themselves in an unfamiliar position: fighting with their über-conservative governor, Scott Walker. The governor's offense? He's hired a 25-year-old woman to be a spokeswoman for his upcoming reelection campaign — and she supports a woman's right to choose.

Per a report in the Huffington Post, Walker is (for now) refusing to cut ties with Alleigh Marre, the millennial Republican who also happens to be pro-choice, despite pushback from Pro-Life Wisconsin and Wisconsin Right to Life. As HuffPo notes, Walker himself has impeccable anti-choice bona fides, having cut funding to Planned Parenthood and made it harder for women in Wisconsin to get an abortion if they want one.

Still, Walker's track record isn't causing anti-choice activists in the state to back off. "Obviously, naturally, that's a problem," Matt Sande, legislative director for Pro-Life Wisconsin said of Marre's hire. "I think he needs a new spokeswoman, immediately," Sande added.

"As a person in the public representing the governor, I think it is a problem," agrees Wisconsin Right to Life executive director Barbara Lyons. "It's a problem for people who believe in Scott Walker and his pro-life position."

“She’s not a policy maker in those particular issues,” Walker said last week in response to the minor controversy. “She’s acting as a communications person.”


By Elias Isquith

Elias Isquith is a former Salon staff writer.

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