spread his message and underwrite his activities" which The Washington Post described as helpful for building the political and fundraising networks for a run for the presidency. In February 2015, Trip Gabriel of The New York Times described him as having "quickly vaulted into the top tier of likely candidates in the Republican presidential race". On April 20, at a fundraising event for the New York State Republican Party, David Koch told donors that he and his brother, who oversee one of the biggest private political organizations in the country, believed that Walker would be the Republican nominee. Following a controversial statement by Rudy Giuliani, Walker declined to answer the question of whether he believes President Obama loves America or was a true Christian, stating that he did not know President Obama's patriotism was in doubt. In June 2015, Walker took a further step towards a presidential campaign when he established a "testing-the-waters" federal campaign committee. This allowed him to raise federal campaign dollars as he explored a possible presidential run. In July 2015, after Walker aides said that he would soon announce his candidacy, Walker announced his candidacy via social media on the morning of July 13, 2015, with Walker speaking at a formal event in Waukesha, Wisconsin that afternoon. As of August 18, 2015, Crowdpac ranked Walker as the fourth-most conservative candidate (following Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Ben Carson) for the 2016 presidential election based on an analysis of campaign donors. Based on an analysis including Crowdpac's rating, public statements by candidates on issues, and congressional voting (not applicable to Walker), FiveThirtyEight had ranked Walker the third-most conservative among candidates as of May 27, 2015. Walker, who started his campaign as a top-tier candidate after what was considered a "break-out" event at the Iowa Freedom Caucus in January, saw his position gradually decline over the summer in 2015. Initially a front-runner in the race, Walker saw a precipitous decline in both polling numbers and campaign funds. On August 6, Walker participated in the first Republican primary debate in Cleveland, Ohio. His performance was seen as decent, without much fanfare nor attention given to it due to his short answers to questions which limited his airtime. Shortly after the debate, Walker admitted to wanting more airtime, but also mentioned that there were multiple debates ahead and that he was successful in changing the argument to which candidate could