This August 2nd, It’s Trump v. Ducey for Governor

The years-long political showdown between RGA Co-Chair Doug Ducey and Donald Trump has come to a head once again, this time in Ducey’s own state of Arizona, where he today endorsed Karrin Taylor Robson against Trump’s candidate of choice, Kari Lake.

This is just the latest in the “Ducey-Trump proxy battle” that has made Trump a thorn in the side of Ducey and the RGA. Trump has called Ducey an “unelectable RINO” and is reportedly trying to “personally spoil any of Ducey’s future political plans.” Even Trump’s pick, Lake, and Ducey himself have publicly feuded.

Their dueling endorsements will be a spoiler in the GOP primary that’s already been riddled with nasty infighting and name-calling. In a completely unhinged debate last week, Taylor Robson and Lake spent the entire time insulting each other and promoting dangerous far-right policies.

Arguing over who is more extreme on abortion, Taylor Robson called Lake “Fake Lake,” to which Lake said, “someone who calls names is not a grown-up.” Both candidates have also embraced the Big Lie and other MAGA policies.

The primary field is so bad that the RGA put out an ad praising Ducey, who’s not even up for reelection, rather than any candidate in the field.

“Just when we thought the Arizona GOP primary couldn’t get any messier, Ducey and Trump have set the field up for an all-out sprint to the far-right,” said DGA Senior Communications Advisor Christina Amestoy. “Karrin Taylor Robson and Kari Lake have enough problems running on out-of-touch stances and debunked conspiracy theories — now they’ll have to deal with Ducey and Trump’s mudslinging on top of their own. There’s no doubt Arizona Republicans will be irreparably divided by this proxy war.”

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