Arizona governor’s push right, Trump feud shaped tenure
PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey beamed as an excavator’s heavy claw smashed through the windows of an old state office building and began tearing off the façade.
In one of his last public appearances in mid-December, the outgoing Republican governor watched the physical manifestation of a project that has defined his eight-year tenure: tearing down state government.
Ducey also cut taxes, vastly expanded school choice, restricted abortion and built a makeshift wall on the U.S.-Mexico border in defiance of a Democratic president, checking just about every conservative box.
At a time when the conservative movement is almost singularly oriented around “owning the libs,” Ducey spent his two terms outmaneuvering Democrats to advance Republican priorities, reshaping his state in a decisively conservative direction.
Yet he leaves office Monday with a limited national profile and the enmity of GOP foot soldiers less interested in the pile of things he accomplished than the one thing he would not do: overturn then-President Donald Trump’s defeat in the state’s 2020 election.
“Ducey really gave the road map of how to govern, how to stay relatively popular and get things done,” said Mike Noble, a Phoenix-based pollster who used to work for Republicans and now focuses on nonpartisan surveys.
Democrat Katie Hobbs is becoming governor, but a Republican-controlled Legislature will limit her ability to undo much of what Ducey enacted. Ducey’s preferred successor, businesswoman Karrin Taylor Robson, lost the GOP primary to Trump backed former television anchor Kari Lake, who rose to prominence on the right as a fierce proponent of Trump’s election lies.
Ducey offered a tepid endorsement of the entire Republican slate but did not campaign with Lake, who lost narrowly to Hobbs and continues to claim the election was marred by intentional misconduct. She frequently attacked Ducey on her way to winning the GOP nomination.
The governor also feuded openly with Kelli Ward, the state GOP chair. But despite the dominance of Lake and Ward in the current state GOP, he plays down their significance.
“They are inconsequential and have zero power,” Ducey told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Ducey has said little about his plans after leaving the governor’s office. He is sometimes mentioned as a top-ticket recruit for Arizona’s 2024 Senate race or as a dark-horse candidate for president or vice president — if the GOP is interested in his brand of limited-government conservatism.
He rejected a recruitment effort by establishment Republicans to run against Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, who was reelected in November.