Ducey believes rise to governor of Arizona, 8-year stint a testament to execution of plan

PHOENIX — Doug Ducey believes he was able to become governor of Arizona and retain the position because he built and executed the plan he envisioned for the state.

“We put a road map out there and I do think having that plan, being able to stand up in front of a room and say, ‘I have a plan’ and passing that out … if you look at that roadmap today, you can check a lot of those boxes,” Ducey told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show on Wednesday.

Ducey said he ran for governor because he believed Arizona was facing challenging times and wanted a stake in the future of what he calls “the greatest place in the country to live.”

The Toledo, Ohio, native said he wanted to make it a point to focus economic development in a state where he built and eventually sold his business, ice cream parlor chain Cold Stone Creamery.

He calls his work with the state’s economy, along with school choice expansion, two of his greatest successes in office.

Arizona’s most recent business boom came last week when Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company announced it would build a second chipmaking facility in north Phoenix and boost its state investment from $12 billion to $40 billion.

“I didn’t know why we weren’t competing with places like California and New York and other large cities for economic development,” Ducey said.

“I said I wanted to kick-start the economy that I had grown a business in and then I wanted to shrink government and we’ve been able to make headway on all those fronts.”

With only a couple weeks left in his tenure, Ducey has one hope for how he’s remembered in Arizona.

“That I did my best and I left the state better than I found it,” Ducey said.

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