Comment Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) on Thursday endorsed real estate developer Karrin Taylor Robson in the battleground state’s GOP primary race for governor, arguing she is best placed to succeed him over a Trump-backed candidate. The endorsement pits Ducey, a two-term governor who heads the national Republican Governors Association, against former President Donald Trump and his favored running mate, former TV anchor Carrie Lake. Speculation had been mounting for months about whether Ducey would endorse in a bitter primary race largely determined by illegal immigration, border security, the economy and whether the two front-runners would accept the results of the 2020 presidential election. Ducey is term limited. “I have looked at each of the candidates for Governor this year and there is no question who is the proven conservative ready to lead on day one: Karrin Taylor Robson,” Ducey said in a written statement. “I am proud to offer Karrin my full support.” That support could prompt moderate Republicans and independent voters, a critical voting bloc, to back Taylor Robson. The qualifiers are on August 2nd. The leading candidate for the Democratic nomination is Secretary of State Katie Hobbs. Ducey has generally been on good terms with many traditional conservatives, but less so with Trump and grassroots Republicans, after he muted a phone call from the former president in December 2020 as he certified the 2020 state election results. Trump mocked Ducey and dismissed him as a RINO — Republican in Name Only — for his unwillingness to support Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud and a rigged 2020 election. Amid Republican pressure to stop Trump’s ‘Vendetta Tour’ in Georgia Ducey entered the governor’s race a day after early voting opened and a week after a raucous televised debate that left Arizona voters with little political substance but a clear sense of the acrimony between the candidates. At times, the moderator pleaded for respectful dialogue, even as the candidates spoke loudly against him. Republicans Scott Neely and Paola Tulliani Zen are also running for the nomination, but the real race is between Taylor Robson and Lake. Another candidate, former Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) dropped out before the debate and endorsed Taylor Robson. In a key moment during the debate, Lake reiterated her longstanding position that the election was stolen by Trump and that Joe Biden “lost the election and should not be in the White House.” Taylor Robson said the 2020 election was “absolutely not fair”. She was the only candidate who said she would accept the results of the upcoming election. Taylor Robson is an Arizona native and lifelong Republican who entered politics while working for President Ronald Reagan decades ago. She is widely considered the most conventional Republican candidate on the primary ballot and supports Ducey’s track record of promoting conservative policies such as expanding school choice and tax cuts. “As Governor, I plan to build on that legacy,” Taylor Robson said in a statement. Arizona GOP candidate who criticized drag was once a fan, drag queen says She is locked in a competitive battle with Lake, a longtime household name who left her job with Phoenix’s Fox-TV affiliate last year and made an outsider bid for governor. Lake has attracted the support of a large faction of GOP voters even as her conservative credentials have come under fire. Roadside campaign signs across the state try to remind voters of her past as a registered Democrat during the early years of President Barack Obama’s first term. Lake won the support of Trump, who quickly saw her as an ally who echoed his baseless claims of a stolen election in a state he narrowly lost in 2020. On Wednesday, the former president mocked Ducey in a statement of his own and encouraged supporters to Vote for Lake: “She has my full and complete approval!” It was not immediately clear whether Ducey would use Republican Governors Association resources to help Taylor Robson, as he has in Georgia, Virginia and elsewhere. Until this year, Ducey has generally stayed out of Arizona primaries. In March, when Ducey ruled out the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate, he signaled his intention to weigh in on the Arizona race. “We have a strong field of candidates in Arizona, and I will actively support our candidate — and perhaps weigh in before the primary,” Ducey told donors in a letter.
