In this Oct. 19, 2020 file photo, President Donald Trump, left, pauses with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey during a campaign rally in Tucson, Ariz.
AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, file
- Trump blasted “rumors” that Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey might enter the state’s 2022 Senate race.
- The former president has needled the governor for certifying President Biden’s 2020 Arizona victory.
- If Ducey enters the race, it would immediately shake a GOP primary that lacks a clear frontrunner.
Former President Donald Trump on Friday mocked Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona, pledging to oppose the Republican leader if he jumps into the state’s 2022 GOP primary race to face off against Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly.
Trump — who continues to mull a 2024 presidential campaign and will visit the Grand Canyon State on Saturday for a rally — has been incensed with Ducey for over a year now for refusing to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in Arizona during the 2020 presidential election.
“Rumors are that Doug Ducey, the weak RINO Governor from Arizona, is being pushed by Old Crow Mitch McConnell to run for the U.S. Senate,” the former president said in a statement. “He will never have my endorsement or the support of MAGA Nation!”
Last January, Ducey told The New York Times that he was not gearing up for a Senate campaign.
“I’m not running for the United States Senate. It’s a no,” he expressed to the newspaper at the time. “I’m 100 percent focused on being the governor of the state of Arizona.”
At the time, Ducey said that his duties as Arizona’s governor and as the chair of the Republican Governors Association were the focus of his energy.
But a recent Politico report raised the possibility that Ducey was eyeing an entry into the race, which would shake up a primary contest that has largely centered on most of the candidates expressing fealty to Trump’s debunked election claims.
If Ducey did decide to enter the primary, he would have until the April 4 filing deadline to garner the required set of signatures. A potential entry into the race by Ducey would likely occur by the end of February, according to a source from the governor’s orbit who spoke with Politico.
The candidates in the GOP primary include state Attorney General Mark Brnovich, Arizona Corporation Commissioner Justin Olson, venture capitalist Blake Masters, solar power executive Jim Lamon, and retired Arizona National Guard adjutant general Michael McGuire.
Trump has not made an official endorsement in the race, but last year, Arizona Mirror reported that a pro-Masters super PAC slammed Brnovich for dismissing Trump’s claims about the state’s election tally.
“Mark Brnovich says President Trump is wrong on voter fraud. Really? Brnovich failed to convene a grand jury, certified Biden as president. Now he’s nowhere to be found, making excuses … instead of standing with our president,” the ad stated.
In November 2020, just days after the election, Brnovich rejected the notion that Arizona elections were anything but fair, stating that “if indeed there was some great conspiracy” to blunt advantages for Republicans, “it apparently didn’t work,” since the party kept their state legislative majorities despite Trump’s loss.
“In Arizona, there was a prediction that the (Republican-controlled) Legislature would flip. It didn’t,” he said on Fox Business at the time.
Most Arizona officials have long contended that there was no electoral malfeasance at the local level, but Trump has continued to push the claim that the vote was tainted, notably in Maricopa County, the state’s most populous jurisdiction and one that voted for Biden after decades of backing GOP presidential nominees.
An election audit that was widely touted by Republicans nationwide reaffirmed Biden’s countywide victory over Trump. In the 2020 election, Biden became the first Democratic presidential nominee since Bill Clinton in 1996 to secure Arizona’s 11 electoral votes, edging out Trump by 10,457 votes out of nearly 3.4 million ballots cast.
Ducey supported Trump’s 2020 campaign, but their relationship soured when the governor disavowed the former president’s election claims and certified the 2020 results.
The governor told The Times last year that he adhered to the Constitution when it came to the election.
“After Nov. 3, the job is to count the votes, tabulate the number, audit the vote and make sure it’s accurate. All 15 counties in Arizona certified the vote. I took an oath to uphold the law and abide by the Constitution. I did my duty,” he said.
He continued: “I have been outspoken that I think the people that have been misinforming Arizonans are wrong and they shouldn’t be doing that and they should be held accountable for that.”
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