“Carrie Lake is misleading voters without evidence,” Ducey, who co-chairs the Republican Governors Association, told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” when asked how Lake took Trump’s debunked claims that the 2020 presidential election .have been stolen.
Lake became an early front-runner in the Aug. 2 primary by embracing the extremism that is now mainstream in the GOP, including promoting election fraud, doubling down on mask and vaccine mandates and calling for the jailing of Democratic Secretary of State Katy Hobbs, who is also running for governor.
Ducey, who is term-limited and has endorsed Republican candidate Karin Taylor Robeson to succeed him, criticized Lake on Sunday as he urged Arizona voters to make this election “about the future,” not the past. “I don’t think we need to think a second more about 2020. It’s about the 2022 election cycle,” he said.
“We don’t know who will be the next Charlie Baker in Massachusetts, Larry Hogan in Maryland or Glenn Youngkin in Virginia,” Ducey said, referring to Republican governors who have won elections in Democratic-leaning states in recent years. “So we’re going to make those decisions focused on how we can achieve success and results.”
Trump mounted a public and sustained attack on Ducey shortly after the November 2020 election, in which Trump lost Arizona to Joe Biden. Ducey defended his state’s election process, tweeting: “That’s the law. I swore to uphold it and I take my responsibility seriously.”
Despite Trump’s ire, Ducey remains a popular figure in Arizona among moderates and Republicans, though the former president maintains a strong hold on the Arizona GOP base.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spent months working aggressively to convince Ducey to launch a Senate campaign, believing he would be the strongest candidate to defeat Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, who is running for a full six-year term in November. But Ducey wrote in a letter to donors this spring that “his mind has not changed” since January 2021, when he initially said he would not run for Senate.
“Nowadays, if you’re going to run for public office, you have to really want the job,” Ducey said at the time. “I now have the job I want, and my intention is to finish my years of service in Arizona with a very productive final legislative session AND to help elect Republican governors across the country in my role as chairman of the Republican Governors Association.”
CNN’s Kyung Lah contributed to this report.
Add Comment