New interest in the ‘mystery’ of Scott Walker’s college years

Scott Walker is surging in the polls. He went to London. He is the first Republican presidential hopeful to open a campaign office in Iowa. 

And yet there is almost as much interest in Walker’s college days as there is in what he’s doing for 2016.

The latest evidence is a lengthy piece on Walker’s time at Marquette University by the Washington Post and another by the Boston Globe, both published Feb. 11, 2015.

So we thought we’d reprise our piece on the “mystery” of Walker’s college years. It was published in December 2013, but even in recent weeks, it has been one of our most-clicked items.

The article was prompted by the fact that Walker’s formative political years — the student activism, his early exit from Marquette and a campaign debut at 22 — remained surprisingly disputed. Moreover, his critics had engaged in unproven attacks, taking advantage of his reluctance to shed more light on this period. 

We found, among other things, no evidence that Walker was forced out of Marquette. But it wasn’t fully clear why he left without graduating.

If elected, Walker would be the first president since Harry Truman without a college degree.

Here is a link to our original piece.