In fact, Walker has been knocking his fellow Republicans for years. During the 2012 campaign, he regularly criticized Mitt Romney’s campaign, saying that Romney was too cautious and needed to show “fire in the belly.” Back in 2013, he was publicly suggesting that the next Republican nominee should be a governor before Congressman Paul Ryan, his fellow Wisconsinite and Romney’s running mate, had announced whether he would run.

As his polls showed his own re-election a toss-up, Walker and his allies went public with criticism that the Republican Governors Association was failing to send enough donations to Wisconsin—even though the RGA, which Christie chaired, had spent $8 million on his re-election, on top of nearly $9 million the group had spent two years before to help him fend off a recall.

“[Walker] is always in campaign mode—always,” said one Ohio Republican political operative, who added that some Walker allies were reaching out to political operatives in Ohio even before the midterms were over.