Doug Ducey

Early life and education

Doug Ducey was born Douglas Anthony Roscoe Jr. in Toledo, Ohio, where he was raised. He is the son of Madeline Scott and Douglas Roscoe, Sr., a former member of the Toledo Police Department.

His parents divorced, and, in 1975, his mother married businessman Michael Ducey, to whom she remained married until 1981. Michael Ducey adopted Douglas and his siblings in 1976, and Douglas's last name was legally changed to his adoptive father's.

Ducey graduated from St. John's Jesuit High School in 1982 and moved to Arizona to attended Arizona State University while working at Hensley & Co., the Anheuser-Busch distributor owned by the family of Cindy McCain. He graduated in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science degree in finance.

During his 2014 campaign for governor, press accounts revealed that some of Ducey's relatives in Toledo, the Scotts, anglicized their name from Scotti and were involved in organized crime in Ohio. Ducey's great-grandfather, Dominic Scott, immigrated from Naples in 1905 and settled in Ohio. These press accounts contained no indication that Ducey was ever affiliated with these family members or involved with any of their activities.

Business career

After graduating from ASU, Ducey joined Procter & Gamble and began a career in sales and marketing. While there, he was trained in management, preparing him for his role as partner and CEO of Cold Stone Creamery. When he and his business partner sold the company in 2007, Cold Stone had grown from a local scoop shop to more than 1,400 locations in all 50 states and 10 countries. After the company's sale to Kahala, accusations of franchise mismanagement led Ducey to leave the organization. He became the lead investor and served as chairman of the board for iMemories from 2008 to 2012.

Ducey is a trustee of the Arizona State University Foundation, serves on the boards of the Banner Health Foundation and the St. John's Jesuit High School Council, and is a member of the Phoenix Thunderbirds and the United Way Alexis de Tocqueville Society.

Ducey has served as president of both the Arizona chapter of Young Entrepreneurs' Organization and the Greater Phoenix Economic Club. He is a former Regional Board Member of Teach for America, and former advisory board member of the Pat Tillman Foundation. Ducey has been a board member of the Arizona State Charter School Board, Thunderbird Charities, the Phoenix Zoo and the Arizona chapter of the Young Presidents Organization. He is a past member of Greater Phoenix Leadership, CEO Forum and the Enterprise Network, as well as a past co-chair for the Sojourner Center Capital Campaign. He is a former scholarship board member for the Catholic Community Foundation for the Diocese of Phoenix and serves on its board of directors.

Ducey's honors include the 2002 Spirit of Enterprise Award on behalf of Cold Stone Creamery by the Center for the Advancement of Small Business at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, and induction into the W.P. Carey School of Business Hall of Fame in 2004. In 2006 he was awarded the MUFSO Golden Chain Award, the nation’s highest honor for restaurateurs. Also in 2006 he was named an entrepreneurial fellow for the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona.

In 2007, Ducey was honored with the AFP Spirit of Philanthropy Award, and in 2009 he was named father of the year by the Father’s Day Council benefiting the American Diabetes Association. In 2012 he received the Tom and Madena Stewart lifetime compassion award from Make-A-Wish Arizona for creating the World’s Largest Ice Cream Social while serving as CEO of Cold Stone.

State Treasurer

In 2011, Ducey was elected state treasurer of Arizona, replacing Dean Martin. As Arizona’s chief banker and investment officer, Ducey oversaw more than $12 billion in state assets and served as an investment manager for local governments. The Treasurer serves as the chairman of Arizona’s State Board of Investment and State Loan Commission, and as the state’s surveyor general and a member of the State Land Selection Board. Ducey also served as the western region vice president for the National Association of State Treasurers, and was the president of the Western State Treasurers' Association.

2014 campaign

In July 2013, Ducey filed the paperwork necessary to explore the possibility of running for governor. On February 19, 2014, Ducey formally announced his intention to seek the office at a rally in downtown Phoenix.

He received the endorsement of numerous conservative leaders, including Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, as well as Governor Scott Walker and former Senator Jon Kyl. Ducey won the Republican nomination in the August primary, and was subsequently endorsed by the outgoing governor, Jan Brewer, along with Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake, and the Republicans in Arizona's U.S. House delegation. Ducey was also endorsed by several organizations, including Arizona Right to Life, Concerned Women for America and the Small Business Alliance.

Ducey defeated Democrat Fred DuVal and Libertarian Barry Hess in the November 4 general election.

Tenure

Ducey was sworn into office on January 5, 2015. Shortly after his term began, he instituted a state employee hiring freeze in an effort to balance the state budget.

On January 15, Ducey signed an education bill requiring high school students to pass the U.S. citizenship test in order to graduate, making Arizona the first state to require this.

Ducey issued his first vetoes on March 30, 2015, vetoing HB2150, an amendment to an animal cruelty law that would have excluded livestock animals from protection under that law, and HB2410, which would have prohibited police departments from establishing quotas for traffic citations.

On March 31, 2017, Ducey signed SB1367, which requires doctors to care for babies born alive during abortions.

On April 6, 2017, Ducey signed a major school voucher expansion bill, extending eligibility to every Arizona student.

Support for repealing the Affordable Care Act

Ducey opposes the Affordable Care Act, saying, "It's no secret Obamacare has been a disaster for Arizona and that I want it repealed and replaced." The Arizona Republic reported on July 30, 2017, that Ducey had given his blessing to Senators Jeff Flake and John McCain to vote for legislation to repeal and replace it. McCain ultimately voted against repeal.

Confederate monuments

In August 2017, after violence by white nationalists at a gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia, Ducey said in response to a reporter's question that he had no interest in removing confederate monuments from public lands in Arizona. He said, “It’s important that people know our history... I don’t think we should try to hide our history.”

State firings

Under Ducey, the state government was mandated to "shrink", which led Ducey-appointed administrator Tim Jeffries to fire over 400 state employees at the Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES). Ducey then prohibited the leadership from firing employees. The employees were fired for infractions such as questioning leadership for sending purportedly political emails on government systems. Fired employees will be able to petition for reconsideration of their firings with the state HR chief, though they do not have the rights in employment they once did as state employees because of a law signed by Governor Brewer that converted them to at-will employment in return for bonuses.

State Land Trust

Ducey was a major proponent of AZ Prop 123, which slowly gleaned more dollars from the state land trust to settle a lawsuit that a judge ruled deprived students and teachers of adequate education funding as mandated by Arizona voters. During the great recession, the Arizona legislature violated the law by funding education in the state below the level required by AZ Prop 300 (Year 2000). Prop 123 settled the lawsuit without raising revenue by increasing distributions from the land trust the federal government bequeathed to the State of Arizona at statehood. Prop 123 also deferred to the legislature, thus overriding Prop 300 in the case the state did not have enough funds for education. Voters essentially undid their Year-2000 mandate. The law was passed with controversy, and many teachers were promised small raises only if the law passed, creating an emergent political issue. With a strong Republican majority, it was not considered politically possible to raise revenue to fund education to the level required, so Prop 123 represented a grand compromise.

Judicial appointments

In January 2016, Ducey appointed Clint Bolick to the Arizona Supreme Court.

In May 2016, Ducey signed legislation to expand the court from five justices to seven justices. This legislation was "championed by Republicans but decried by Democrats as an effort by the governor to pack the court with his nominees." In November 2016, Ducey appointed Arizona Court of Appeals Judge Andrew Gould and state Solicitor General John Lopez IV to the two new seats. Lopez is the state's first Latino justice.

Personal life

Ducey met his wife, Angela, while attending Arizona State University. They live in Paradise Valley with their three sons, Jack, Joe and Sam.