GOP Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey will not run for election for the U.S. Senate in 2022, the Arizona Republic first reported Thursday. Ducey is unable to run for reelection for governor due to the state’s term limits. His term concludes January 2023.
Ducey made the announcement in a letter to donors this week. In the letter, he stated that he’s honored that there are Republicans who want him to continue his career in public service, but he will seek any kind of elected office after January 2023.
“When asked about a potential run for the U.S. Senate in January 2021, I gave a simple answer: ‘No.’ In the intervening months a number of people have asked me to reconsider. I’m honored by the confidence and interest you’ve shown in my public career,” Ducey wrote to his donors. “My mind hasn’t changed.”
“If you’re going to run for public office, you have to really want the job,” Ducey wrote in the letter. “Right now I have the job I want, and my intention is to close my years of service to Arizona with a very productive final legislation session AND to help elect Republican governors across the country in my role as chairman of the Republican Governors Association.”
Ducey served a single term as a state treasurer before running for and winning the governorship in 2014. He was reelected in 2018. He did not indicate what his plans are after he leaves office next year.
A report by Politico noted that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) and former Florida governor Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL.), chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, “have been among the national leaders recruiting Ducey and other Republican governors — including New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan — to no avail.”
Last month, as Townhall covered, Hogan made an announcement in a press conference that he will not run for the Senate. Hogan’s term as governor will end next January.
“I want to put to rest a question that some of you have been asking me. I want to let you know that I will not be a candidate for the United States Senate. I sincerely appreciate all the people who have been encouraging me to consider it. A number of people have said that they thought I could make a difference in the Senate as a voice for common sense and moderation. I was humbled by that, and it certainly gave me and my family reason to consider it. But as I have repeatedly said, I don’t aspire to be a senator, and that fact has not changed,” he said in the conference.
As Politico noted, McConnell was reportedly pushing Hogan to run for the Senate. Scott reportedly had “multiple recruitment conversations” with Hogan.
"In January of 2023, I'll have plenty of time to think about what the future holds. I think the world's going to be a different place a year from now," Hogan said in his announcement.