The Republican candidate for the next Governor of Arizona is a critical choice for Arizonans. First and foremost, the winner of the August 2nd Republican Primary must be able to win the General Election on November 8, four short months away. Voting by mail ballots were sent out on July 6th with election day to follow 33 days later on August 2nd .

We are all experiencing the historic damage done by elected Democrats across America since 2020 with a truly radical progressive leftist agenda from the White House, the U.S. Congress, Democrat Governors, state legislatures, Attorney Generals, Mayors, and District Attorneys across the country. A wide-open southern border, roaring inflation and approaching recession/stagflation, rapidly increasing crime in many American cities, a war on fossil fuels, and a fearsome push to sexualize our children in their schools and our culture are their legacy to mention a few of the results.

Arizona must not elect a Democrat to the Governor’s office next January. The enormous progress this state has made under Republican executive and legislative leadership with a vibrant and growing economy, excellent tax reform, rapid recovery from the Covid pandemic, school choice, and an attractive business environment drawing companies from across the nation must not be turned back by progressive and regressive policies the Democrat party has aggressively demonstrated since 2020 and before. Therefore, the best and strongest candidate for the gubernatorial Republican primary and the candidate most likely to win the General Election must be chosen on August 2nd.

What should Arizona voters be looking for in the Republican Primary nominee as the person most likely to win the general election and become the next Governor? Please consider the following characteristics that would qualify.

• The Governor is a chief executive, like a CEO of a very large company. This individual must be able to build coalitions. He or she must be able to pull people together and with appropriate compromise and leadership actually get things done for ‘We the People’, the people of Arizona.
• The individual who can do this must have the temperament to lead, influence, and achieve results with both a clear vision and a substantial capability for process, almost always achieved by real-life experience. Bomb throwers and divisive candidates skilled in attacking and falsely misstating the character and record of their opponents do not make good chief executives and leaders. They are often losers in the general election arena.
• The Arizona Legislature and the Governor just finished and put forth the next budget – an $18 billion dollar budget which the next Governor will be responsible for. Again, experience in management and the process of actually running something complex and significant are key attributes for picking the next Governor.
• What has the candidate done to justify being chosen for this enormous responsibility with many departments and staff to oversee and coordinate, manage relationships with legislators for effective and realistic legislative goals, work with federal agencies, and address our broken and open border, our southern neighbor Mexico, and the businesses in our state?
• The Governor must be Arizona’s governor for all people. A chief executive with real-life experience knows this well. A steady, genuine, and mature temperament is an essential part of being a governor for all Arizonans.
• Arizona should not become a ‘blue’ state. The next Governor of our state must play a strong leadership role in reestablishing a very ‘red’ character to Arizona’s political profile. The Governor is the titular head of the state party and must be able lead the GOP to make this happen. We have lost two Senate seats and have a minority number of U.S. House seats for this conservative state! Electing a strong Republican candidate with a long and established history of loyalty and substantive activity in the party should count greatly in your choice for the August 2nd primary.
• Politicians infrequently change their party and will typically state that they have “evolved” or that their party “left them”. Arizona is not New York or California or Illinois or New Jersey. It is Arizona, a state with a long history of liberty-loving Americans. Our Republican nominee for Governor should reflect that and not be in transition to conservative principles for the sake of this very important office.

The two competitive candidates in this gubernatorial Primary race are Karrin Taylor Robson and Kari Lake. Watching commercials and being bombarded with the typical smear techniques in tweets and negative mailings are tiresome and misleading. They don’t help citizens make choices that are best for our beloved state. If you read the above bullet points and think about them for a short while, the choice for the Republican primary for Governor will be clear.

Karrin Taylor Robson has been a life-long Arizonan and conservative Republican. She has been a devoted and loyal member and supporter of the party and the conservative cause at many levels. As a highly successful business executive, she has a long history of creating jobs and using her legal expertise and knowledge for Arizona’s land use, environmental, and conservation issues. She is the Founder and President of Arizona Strategies, a nationally recognized land use strategy firm. She has created public/private partnerships to benefit our state in these areas. Given her substantial executive experience and life-long credentials as an Arizona conservative, she is truly qualified to be the chief executive of this growing and successful state as the next Republican Governor. Matt Salmon, a former Arizona U.S. Representative, recently dropped out of the Republican gubernatorial primary race and endorsed Karrin Taylor Robson as the nominee.

Kari Lake has been in television journalism since the early 1990s. She came to Arizona in 1994 working as a weather newscaster. She became an evening anchor for KSAZ-TV (Fox 10 Phoenix) in 1999 and served in that position until 2021. She is well known in the Phoenix metropolitan area and in the state. Although well-spoken and intelligent, she has little executive and management experience that demonstrates the leadership roles and temperament for being the chief executive officer of Arizona. Her political history is that of being a Republican, a Democrat, and an Independent at different times. She was a supporter of John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008. Many former liberals have become leaders in the conservative movement and we do not discount her conversion. However, usually more time passes than with Ms. Lake and more public positions become known over time, typically measured in years or decades. She was endorsed by Donald Trump and describes herself as the America First candidate in the upcoming Republican primary race for the gubernatorial nominee.