What They’re Saying: Ducey “Another Significant Recruiting Failure” For Senate GOP, Left With Candidates “Far From The American Mainstream & Difficult To Take Seriously”

CBS News: “Ducey’s announcement follows similar decisions by Republican Governors Larry Hogan of Maryland and Chris Sununu of New Hampshire”

MSNBC: “The result is a rough tally for the National Republican Senatorial Committee”

A wave of news coverage is highlighting how Doug Ducey’s decision not to run for Senate “marks another significant recruiting failure for McConnell and his allies” – leaving Senate Republicans “stuck with several nominees in competitive races who are both far from the American mainstream and difficult to take seriously.” 

See for yourself:

Washington Post: Arizona Gov. Ducey (R) announces he won’t run for Senate, in blow to GOP recruitment effort. Ducey had been heavily courted by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the National Republican Senatorial Committee and others in Washington.

• The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee pointed to Ducey’s decision as a sign that “potential Republican candidates know they cannot defend their party’s disastrous agenda.”

• “Once again, Senate Republicans’ recruitment efforts have failed, and their top potential candidates are refusing to run against strong Democratic Senators like Mark Kelly,” DSCC spokesman Patrick Burgwinkle said in a statement.

Associated Press: No Senate run for Arizona Gov. Ducey, blow to GOP recruiting. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has notified Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell that he will not enter his state’s high-profile Senate contest, a disappointing development for establishment Republicans.

• Ducey’s decision marks another significant recruiting failure for McConnell, R-Ky., and his allies, who also could not persuade popular Republican governors to enter Senate contests in New Hampshire and Maryland.

CBS News: Arizona Governor Doug Ducey says he won’t run for Senate. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has closed the door on mounting a U.S. Senate campaign, rebuffing pressure from some national Republicans to enter the race.

• Ducey’s announcement follows similar decisions by Republican Governors Larry Hogan of Maryland and Chris Sununu of New Hampshire to opt against launching Senate bids despite pressure from national Republicans.
  
  
• “Once again, Senate Republicans’ recruitment efforts have failed, and their top potential candidates are refusing to run against strong Democratic Senators like Mark Kelly,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson Patrick Burgwinkle said in a statement. 

New York Times: Ducey Confirms He Will Not Run for Senate, Despite McConnell’s Wooing. Doug Ducey of Arizona reaffirmed his decision Thursday not to run for the Senate this year, dealing a blow to Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader.

• That did not stop Mr. McConnell, whose attempts to recruit two other Republican governors, Chris Sununu of New Hampshire and Larry Hogan of Maryland, into Senate races were also rebuffed.
  
  
• Taken together, the rejections illustrate the difficulty Senate Republicans are having in trying to lure mainstream conservative governors to serve in a party still shadowed by Mr. Trump.
  

HuffPost: GOP Senate Recruitment Efforts Continue To Fizzle. Republicans lost another top recruit to the U.S. Senate on Thursday when it was revealed in a leaked donor memo that Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has no plans to join the race. 

• New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and former Georgia Sen. David Perdue have all rebuffed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
  
  
• GOP efforts to recruit more establishment candidates have largely fizzled. Instead, the Republican fields in many battleground states — Arizona, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio and Pennsylvania — are dominated by far-right lurching candidates.

Arizona Republic: ‘I have the job I want’: Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey will not run for the U.S. Senate in 2022. The extended recruitment by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., reflected, in part, the perceived weakness of the existing GOP field of senatorial candidates.

• None of the current candidates has stood apart in fundraising or cut a prominent political profile, two factors that intensified efforts to draft Ducey.
  
  
• Party spokesperson Hannah Goss tied Ducey’s decision in part to Trump’s grip on the Republican Party. “No one looms larger in this GOP Senate primary than Donald Trump, whose lies around the 2020 election have become this race’s litmus test even as Arizonans are ready to move on,” Goss said. “Ducey was widely reported to be Mitch McConnell and the NRSC’s best hope to win this Senate seat, and now Washington Republicans are left with what they have admitted is a clown car of C-list candidates who care more about fighting each other than actually representing Arizonans.”

MSNBC: Yet another GOP governor rejects Senate Republican overtures. Republicans want to recruit the best candidates to run for Senate seats, but they’ve created a chamber that the best candidates don’t want to be a part of.

• Republicans have spent much of the last year trying to recruit competitive contenders for 2022 U.S. Senate races, but without much luck.
  
  
• The result is a rough tally for the National Republican Senatorial Committee: Four sitting governors were asked to run, and all four declined.
  
  
• The result of these failed recruiting attempts will likely be a Republican Party stuck with several nominees in competitive races who are both far from the American mainstream and difficult to take seriously.

POLITICO: Ducey won’t run for Senate in Arizona. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), 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. 

The Hill: Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey tells donors he won’t run for Senate. Ducey is the latest Republican governor to take a pass on a potential U.S. Senate candidacy this year… New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) both said they would not challenge Democratic incumbents in their home states.

Los Angeles Times: Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey opts out of Senate run — a setback for GOP hopes. Ducey is the third GOP governor this year to decline to seek a Senate seat despite dogged recruitment efforts by Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell.

Washington Examiner: Doug Ducey rules out run for Senate. The Arizona Republican’s decision mirrors New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu’s rejection of a Senate bid last year. Like Ducey, he was recruited by national Republicans to run for the Senate but ultimately rebuffed those pleas due to his misgivings about the odds of “getting stuff done” in a slow-moving Congress. Other Republican governors who have rejected recruiters’ pleas to run for Senate include Vermont Gov. Phil Scott and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan.

CNN: Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey rules out US Senate bid and says he may endorse in GOP primary. Former President Donald Trump looms large over the Republican Senate primary in Arizona, as candidates compete for his backing.

Guy Benson (Townhall): Star recruit chased off by you-know-who. Hope the GOP doesn’t leave points on the field, especially in the Senate, because you-know-who can’t handle his own election loss.

Edward-Isaac Dovere (CNN): potentially super strong R Senate candidates who’ve opted out largely b/c of the current Trump-defined environment in the GOP: 

former NV Gov. Brian Sandoval

NH Gov. Chris Sununu

VT Gov. Phil Scott

MD Gov. Larry Hogan

Now – Arizona’s Gov. Doug Ducey

Jonathan Martin (New York Times): ⁦@dougducey⁩ makes it official – he won’t run

Expected but will come as a disappointment to Senate Rs, from McConnell on down, who pushed him hard. As w Sununu, Hogan and Haslam in ‘20, it’s a tough sell for govs

Josh Kraushaar (National Journal): Been a rough stretch for the Senate GOP’s establishment wing. Sununu & Ducey both pass …, primary fields in Arizona/Ohio/Missouri as problematic as ever, and McConnell now openly feuding with NRSC chair Rick Scott. […]

Leigh Ann Caldwell (NBC News): I asked @SenJohnThune about Gov Ducey not running for Senate. “That’s a sad story,” he said. Do Republicans have a problem recruiting candidates that can win the general election? “That is the existential question,” he says.

Burgess Everett (POLITICO): It’s been brewing for awhile, but GOP Govs. Sununu, Ducey, Scott and Hogan all taking passes on Senate races remains a notable dynamic and leaves some of these primaries, particularly in Arizona, murky

Mike Debonis (Washington Post): The three mod govs, potential 2022 map-remakers, all say no to McConnell & Co. in the face of Trump headwinds.

Dave Weigel (Washington Post): With Ducey passing on #AZSen, McConnell’s now winless in his campaign to convince popular governors to run for Senate in 2022 – first Sununu, then Hogan, now Ducey. […]

Paul McLeod (Buzzfeed): NRSC chair Rick Scott’s last few weeks: Gov. Ducey tells him no to running for Senate. Gov. Sununu tells him no to running for Senate. Gov. Hogan tells him no to running for Senate. He releases an 11-point campaign plan that his own party immediately, widely denounces.

Read the DSCC’s statement on Doug Ducey and Senate GOP recruitment failures here. 

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