- Pritzker Fellows
- Current Fellows
- Doug Ducey
Doug Ducey
Former Governor of Arizona
Winter 2024 Visiting
Pritzker Fellow
Seminar Series: "From Ice Cream to Ingenuity: Former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey’s Policy Reform Agenda & a Blueprint for the GOP"
Governor Doug Ducey was elected as Arizona's 23rd governor in 2014 and re-elected in 2018 with more votes than anyone in state history. Upon election, Arizona had a $1 billion deficit and a sluggish economy. Today, Arizona has a record surplus, a balanced budget and a booming economy. That’s no coincidence. Governor Ducey has eliminated overburdensome regulations, fostered the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs, and reformed taxes every year he’s been in office—including signing the largest income tax cut in state history. Beginning January 1, 2023 Arizona will enjoy the lowest flat-tax in the nation at 2.5%. Throughout his administration, Governor Ducey has prioritized education. Since he took office, Arizona has invested over $11 billion into K-12 education and brought per-pupil funding to a record high. He has also positioned Arizona as a national leader in school choice and civics education. Even with record investments and historic tax cuts, Governor Ducey has found a way to ensure Arizona’s insulated from future downturns, adding $1 billion to the state’s Rainy Day Fund, along with an additional $1 billion in his final session to safeguard Arizona’s water future through augmentation.
Currently serving as CEO of Citizens For Free Enterprise he is a former businessman and CEO of Cold Stone Creamery who began his career at Procter & Gamble and served as Chairman of the Republican Governors Association. He has 3 sons, Jack, Joe and Sam and has been married to his wife Angela for 33 years and resides in Paradise Valley, Arizona.
Seminars
"From Ice Cream to Ingenuity: Former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey’s Policy Reform Agenda & a Blueprint for the GOP"
Doug Ducey built a successful career in business, turning Cold Stone Creamery into a household name. In 2010, he surveyed the landscape and felt the government could learn a thing or two from his entrepreneurial experience. After a successful run for state treasurer, he was elected governor of Arizona in 2014 and served two successful terms. His string of significant, first-in-the-nation successes included universal school choice and required civics education in high schools, a key campaign promise. He knocked down onerous occupational licensing requirements - a policy carbon-copied by red and blue states across the country - and made good on his commitment to lower income taxes to near zero by passing the lowest flat tax in America. Governor Ducey is an example of how Republicans can win big in a swing state; he got more votes than any other individual in Arizona history for governor with a greater margin of victory from his first race in 2018 over 2014, inspiring his peers to elect him for consecutive terms as chairman of the Republican Governors Association - the first governor to have that honor since Ronald Reagan.
As an outsider to government, Governor Ducey made significant reforms during his eight years. George Will called him the "Most Successful 21st Century Governor.” But from school choice to tax reform to slashing the size and scope of government, these monumental reforms did not happen overnight or easily. Gov. Ducey faced organized opposition from entrenched interests, even within his own party. How did he get it done? What coalitions did he need to build? What lessons can this provide to other states, and even our federal government?
What should the Republican Party stand for? What should conservatism represent? Our nation’s capital cannot provide that answer. Indeed the federal government did not create the states, the states created the federal government, as Republican governors understand, and yet many in Washington don’t. Governor Ducey sees the path to electoral and policy success for Republicans resting on a push for dollars and decisions back to the states, rather than a top-down, Washington, D.C.-centric approach. There are numerous examples to point to of Republican governors leading the way for the GOP, foreshadowed when President Reagan reminded us in his first inaugural, “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem.”