Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey is accusing President Joe Biden of going out of his way to “antagonize, alienate and frustrate” those living in the Grand Canyon State.
Ducey, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, made his comments in a column posted Thursday by The Wall Street Journal.
“For more than two decades national Democrats spent big trying to replicate Bill Clinton’s 1996 Arizona win,” Ducey said. “After succeeding in 2020, you’d think President Biden would be working overtime to keep the state in the blue column. But less than a year into his administration, his record shows the opposite.”
Ducey said he is concerned about Biden’s handling of the border crisis.
“It affects us more acutely than almost any other state,” he said. “And yet — along with Afghanistan — it’s seen by many as his administration’s biggest failure. Our border towns are being overrun; our law enforcement and National Guard are stretched to the breaking point; the flow of drugs is worse than ever; and our charitable organizations can’t handle the volume of migrants.
“What’s happening at the border isn’t a case of benign neglect. Criminal negligence is more like it, and Arizonans are paying a huge price.”
While citing other issues with Biden, he noted the “latest outrage is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.”
“For almost five decades Arizona, with approval by OSHA, has managed workplace safety itself through a state agency, the Industrial Commission of Arizona,” he said. “Perhaps because the agency has sought public input and hasn’t been stringent (meaning oppressive) enough on COVID shutdowns and mask mandates, the feds now want to revoke our independence and put the entire state under the yoke of OSHA.
“Imagine the reaction of local business owners on learning that Washington is in charge now, and the people they’ve dealt with for years in Phoenix no longer matter.”
He said “real people” are being negatively affected by the Biden administration’s decisions.
And Ducey added: “If you want to know why the president’s poll numbers are tanking, look at Arizona. We’re a case study in how active hostility from the Washington ruling class is alienating real people. Unless this changes, you can take Arizona out of the Democratic column in 2024.”
