The Arizona Republic

Nike tweet: Who was Ducey’s audience?

2 a.m. post suggests he sought national attention

- Maria Polletta

Early Tuesday morning, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey launched a verbal assault on Nike via Twitter, blasting the company for pulling a shoe that featured an early version of the American flag.

Nike was worried the design might offend some Americans. Ducey, in turn, was offended by that stance.

The nine-message thread hit all the usual notes Republican leaders use in such situations, from frustratio­n over political correctnes­s to outrage over what Ducey deemed an insult to patriotism and American history.

Less common, however, was the

thread’s 2 a.m. publicatio­n time in Arizona, which suggested Ducey’s constituen­ts weren’t the intended audience.

Published at 5 a.m. Eastern time, the comments seemed better positioned to catch the eyes of earlymorni­ng cable news hosts — and perhaps a certain someone at the White House with a penchant for Twitter.

“It’s pretty clear that it’s a page straight out of the (Donald) Trump playbook,” said Thomas Volgy, a former Tucson mayor and Democrat turned political science professor at the University of Arizona.

“If the president would’ve tweeted this, no one would’ve been surprised. If the president would’ve tweeted this at 5 a.m., no one would’ve been surprised.”

Ducey doesn’t mince words

Ducey doesn’t have the sort of trigger-happy socialmedi­a reputation Trump does, though — even if he has grown to more fully embrace the president’s positions and tactics over the past year.

More often, Ducey provides measured responses that rely heavily on rehearsed talking points.

That meant Tuesday’s aggressive stance — which included withdrawin­g state incentives promised to Nike in exchange for opening a plant in Goodyear — immediatel­y raised eyebrows, particular­ly since it came just hours after the city approved a deal expected to create 500-plus jobs. The governor’s action did not affect larger incentives offered by Goodyear officials.

Within hours, Ducey’s comments had made headlines on CNBC, Fox News and other major outlets, racking up tens of thousands of likes and retweets on Twitter. The governor drew praise from prominent conservati­ves from commentato­r Meghan McCain to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, while angering Democrats who noted his more tepid reactions to issues such as migrant-detention conditions and prison-security failures.

“Words cannot express my disappoint­ment at this terrible decision,” the governor wrote, saying he was “embarrasse­d” Nike had “bowed” to pressure from former NFL quarterbac­k Colin Kaepernick, as reported Monday night by the Wall Street Journal.

“Arizona’s economy is doing just fine without Nike. We don’t need to suck up to companies that consciousl­y denigrate our nation’s history.”

Nike had explained its plans to pull a shoe featuring a design commonly known as the Betsy Ross flag by saying it didn’t want to “unintentio­nally offend and detract from the nation’s patriotic holiday.”

While the flag hasn’t been broadly co-opted as a symbol used by hate groups, it has been appropriat­ed by the Ku Klux Klan and the anti-government “militia movement” in the past.

“This country, our system of government and free enterprise have allowed (Nike) to prosper and flourish,” Ducey wrote. “Instead of celebratin­g American history the week of our nation’s independen­ce, Nike has apparently decided that Betsy Ross is unworthy.”

The Arizona Commerce Authority confirmed Ducey had directed it to scrap a $1 million grant offered to the company.

Analyst: Timing no coincidenc­e

Chuck Coughlin, a longtime GOP strategist, said the governor’s decision to pull the incentive seemed to contradict his governing philosophy of keeping Arizona “open for business.”

Ducey has long positioned himself as a “jobs governor” who works to reduce regulation­s and other government interferen­ce in corporate dealings, regularly mocking California for getting in businesses’ way.

“You would think some restraint would be in order, given the deal just made (between Nike and Goodyear on Monday),” Coughlin said. “Obviously, Nike’s made a poor decision in this instance. But many large companies make poor decisions.”

Coughlin said the country already is “zeroing in on the highly partisan nature of the 2020 presidenti­al cycle,” and Ducey “obviously wants to support the president” in his reelection bid.

It’s clear Ducey meant for his message to reach beyond Arizona, Coughlin said, because the governor’s administra­tion historical­ly “has been superiorly message-discipline­d about what they say and when they say it.”

Stuart Goodman, a Republican lobbyist and former policy adviser to Arizona Gov. Jane Hull, agreed Ducey’s reaction wasn’t random but disagreed that it was meant to be “politicall­y expedient.”

“If you think about it, civics has kind of been this governor’s thing,” Goodman said, mentioning an early move to create the American Civics Education Pilot Program for Arizona high-schoolers.

“If this was his first foray into the civics conversati­on, it would be one thing,” he said, “but for the last five years, this has been a repeated theme and a repeated passion, and I could see where he would get frustrated by an attack on American founding families.”

All politician­s have pet issues that are so fundamenta­l to them, they’ll speak out about them regardless of the consequenc­es, Goodman said.

Lisa James, a longtime Republican consultant, said she found the timing of the Twitter thread largely irrelevant, given existing controvers­ies involving NFL players and Nike.

“I don’t think it had anything to do with broadening (Ducey’s) audience,” she said. “I think the audience for this was broad, period.”

Asked explicitly for informatio­n about the governor’s motivation­s, the overnight thread rollout and any coordinati­on that preceded it Tuesday, Ducey’s office was tight-lipped.

“The tweet speaks for itself,” a spokesman said via email. “The governor stands by it.”

Volgy, the political science professor, said doing so will bolster Ducey’s image as “a good partisan” in the country’s ongoing “culture wars.”

“There are kids dying at the border, health-care issues happening, climate change and so on,” he said. “Trying to shift the argument to something else, even if it’s shoes, seems to be part of the Republican playbook for how to win next year.”

 ?? AP ?? Nike is pulling a flag-themed tennis shoe after former NFL quarterbac­k Colin Kaepernick complained.
AP Nike is pulling a flag-themed tennis shoe after former NFL quarterbac­k Colin Kaepernick complained.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States