Doug Ducey didn’t start his career in a wood-paneled law office or a smoke-filled political backroom. He started it with an ice cream scoop. Before he was the face of Arizona's executive branch, he was the guy making sure your "Cake Batter" mix-in was perfectly folded at Cold Stone Creamery. It’s a bit of trivia that defines his brand. The "CEO Governor."
He ran the state like a franchise for eight years. Efficient? Mostly. Controversial? Absolutely.
When people talk about Arizona governor Doug Ducey today, the conversation usually splits into two camps. You have the people who saw him as a fiscal wizard who slashed taxes and streamlined a bloated government. Then you have the critics who point to a "wall" of rusted shipping containers in the desert as the ultimate symbol of political theater. Honestly, both versions of the man are true.
The Cold Stone Legacy and the Business of Politics
Ducey moved from Ohio to Tempe to attend Arizona State University. He was a finance kid. He worked at Hensley & Co.—the Anheuser-Busch distributor owned by Cindy McCain’s family—while he was a student. That’s where the roots of his Arizona connections began.
In 1995, he took over as CEO of Cold Stone Creamery. He grew that thing from a handful of local shops to a global beast with over 1,400 locations.
But it wasn't all sprinkles. By the time he sold the company in 2007, some franchisees were complaining about a "defective" business model that left them underwater. This pattern followed him into the Governor’s Office: big, bold growth strategies that sometimes left the people on the ground dealing with the messy aftermath.
He won the 2014 election by promising to bring "business sense" to the Capitol. Arizona was staring at a $1 billion deficit. Ducey didn't just trim the budget; he hacked it. He’s famous for having the shortest legislative session in decades during his first year. He wanted to get in, balance the books, and get out.
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What He Actually Did for Schools
Education is where the Ducey record gets complicated.
He loves to talk about "Education Scholarship Accounts" (ESAs). Under his watch, Arizona became the first state in the nation to offer universal school choice. Basically, it means public money can follow the student to private or parochial schools. To his supporters, it's freedom. To public school advocates, it’s a slow-motion drain on the system.
You might remember the #RedForEd protests in 2018. Thousands of teachers in crimson shirts flooded the streets of Phoenix. They were tired of some of the lowest teacher pay in the country. Ducey, who had spent years emphasizing tax cuts over spending, was suddenly backed into a corner.
He eventually signed the "20x2020" plan. It was a promise to raise teacher salaries by 20% by the year 2020. He did it. But the relationship with the education community remained frosty. He was the governor who settled a decade-long lawsuit over school funding through Proposition 123, yet he never quite shook the "anti-public school" label from his detractors.
The Border, the Containers, and the "Junkyard" Wall
If you want to understand why Doug Ducey's final months in office were so chaotic, look at the Coronado National Forest.
In 2022, Ducey decided he was tired of waiting for the federal government to fill gaps in the border wall. He issued an executive order to double-stack thousands of shipping containers along the Mexico border. It cost Arizona taxpayers roughly $194.7 million.
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It was a "junkyard" wall. Protesters literally sat on the containers to stop construction. The federal government sued, calling it a lawless trespass on protected lands.
Eventually, Ducey agreed to take them down—just days before his term ended. The state paid millions to put them up and millions more to haul them away. It was a polarising move. Some saw it as a necessary stand against federal inaction. Others saw it as a massive waste of money for a photo op that never had a chance of staying.
The 2020 Election and the Phone Call
Then there's "The Call."
November 30, 2020. Ducey is sitting at a desk, signing the papers to certify Arizona’s election results for Joe Biden. His phone starts vibrating. It’s the "Hail to the Chief" ringtone.
It was Donald Trump. Ducey ignored the call and kept signing.
That moment changed his political trajectory forever. By refusing to overturn the election results, Ducey became a "traitor" to the MAGA wing of his party. He was censured by the Arizona GOP. He went from being a rising star in the national Republican party to a man without a clear lane. He didn't run for Senate in 2024, despite being the GOP's best statistical chance to win the seat. He just didn't have the stomach for a primary against a base that had turned on him.
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Where He Is Now in 2026
Since leaving the Governor’s Tower in early 2023, Ducey hasn't exactly retired to a rocking chair. He’s been serving as the CEO of Citizens for Free Enterprise. It’s a gig that fits him perfectly. He’s back in the world of business advocacy, pushing for low taxes and deregulation on a national scale.
He’s still active in the party, but in a "behind-the-scenes" way. In 2025, he made headlines by endorsing Kari Lake for Senate, despite their very public and very ugly history. It was a move that signaled he’s still a "party first" guy, even if the party doesn't always love him back.
Key Takeaways from the Ducey Era
If you’re trying to figure out if Ducey was "good" for Arizona, you have to look at the numbers versus the noise:
- The Economy: He left Arizona with a massive surplus and the lowest flat tax in the country. Private-sector job growth during his tenure was some of the highest in the U.S.
- The Judiciary: He basically remade the Arizona Supreme Court, expanding it from five to seven justices and appointing conservatives who will influence the state for decades.
- The Border: The shipping container project was a fiscal disaster, but it forced a national conversation on border gaps.
- The Pandemic: He was criticized from both sides—too slow to mask up for some, too willing to close bars for others. He tried to walk a middle line that ended up satisfying almost no one.
Doug Ducey was the ultimate CEO governor. He focused on the bottom line, expanded the brand, and ignored the "HR complaints" from the opposition. Whether that worked for you depends entirely on whether you think a state should be run like a business or a community.
To understand the current political landscape in Arizona, look into the specific impacts of the 2.5% flat tax he implemented. You can also research the current status of the "Arizona Teachers Academy" to see if his scholarship models are actually filling the teacher shortage he tried to solve.