Ducey at White House: Arizona governor will be a guest of Trump’s for RNC acceptance speech.
Political event scheduled tonight at White House
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and his wife Angela will watch President Donald Trump’s re-nomination acceptance speech in-person at the White House tonight.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Trump will deliver his remarks from the South Lawn, with the president’s residency as his backdrop on the fourth and final day of the Republican National Convention.
Arizona’s governor, who viewed Trump warily in the early days of his campaign in 2015, is solidly behind
Trump four years later.
Their alliance has manifested itself in Ducey’s day-to-day tending of the state’s COVID-19 outbreak, through announcements of federal funding and other support from the administration or Congress, and at political rallies and presidential visits to the once reliably red state.
Patrick Ptak, a Ducey spokesman, said the Duceys were invited to watch the speech in-person.
“Gov. Ducey is honored to be invited to the White House for this historic occasion and to support President Trump,” Ptak said. “The governor is very grateful for the leadership of President Trump and Vice President (Mike) Pence, especially their support of Arizona through this pandemic.”
Ducey is traveling to Washington on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Arizona reported a low 187 new COVID-19 cases and a relatively high 104 new known deaths. The figures demonstrate a state that is improving after a surge of hospitalizations and deaths over the summer that caught global attention.
The state’s trends have been on a downward trend for about six weeks.
Ducey’s return to the White House comes just weeks after Trump hosted the governor at the White House to praise his handling of the pandemic.
Trump has an affinity for Ducey — whom he refers to as “Doug” — in part because of the governor’s large victory in 2018. That same cycle, then-Rep. Martha McSally lost by a narrow margin to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema.
“It’s an honor to be with the governor of a fabulous state, Arizona,” Trump said during their Aug. 5 visit.
“It’s Doug Ducey, and we know him well. And we’ve had a tremendous relationship. He had a tremendous, big, very big election victory. And he has done an incredible job on COVID, or COVID-19, or about 19 other names we can call it. It’s got probably more names than anything else you can think of. And he was hit very hard, and he’s — and he hit back even harder.”
Have news to share about Arizona’s U.S. senators or national politics? Reach the reporter on Twitter and Facebook. Contact her at yvonne.wingett@ arizonarepublic.com and 602-4444712.
Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. Subscribe for free to The Gaggle political podcast on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, or wherever you listen to audio content.