Matt Salmon leaves race for Arizona governor
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Former Arizona congressman Matt Salmon, a longtime figure in state Republican politics who barely lost a bid for governor 20 years ago, announced Tuesday he would end his campaign for the GOP nomination for governor.
Salmon, 64, announced he would leave the race barely a week before early voting begins, acknowledging he trailed two other GOP candidates who held a lead he couldn’t close.
“Unfortunately, numbers are numbers, and it has become clear to me that the path to a first-place victory is no longer a realistic possibility,” Salmon said in a statement. “Republican primary voters deserve more than having their votes split on Aug. 2nd, and so I am leaving this race for the same reason that I entered it: Because it is what’s best for the people of Arizona.”
Salmon, of Mesa, is a small-government, low-tax conservative who jumped from the state Senate to serve five terms over two stints in Washington, D.C., where his legacy includes helping start the House Freedom Caucus, which includes the most conservative members of Congress.
He built his campaign to replace Republican Gov. Doug Ducey on his experience. Of five GOP candidates in the primary election, Salmon was the only one who had won an election, other than to serve as a precinct committeeperson.
Salmon pledged to eliminate the income tax and crack down at the state’s southern border if voters elected him governor.
While one leading opponent ran a sensational campaign based on rage politics, Salmon was more comfortable talking policy. While another candidate showed willingness to spend millions of her own money to reach voters, Salmon’s fundraising trailed, leaving him third in the pack of candidates.
His departure from the race could shift the dynamics in a close Republican contest just ahead of early voting and roughly a month before the primary election.
Salmon’s pool of conservative supporters and donors will now choose between four remaining candidates, namely two frontrunners in the GOP field: Kari Lake, the former Fox 10 news anchor running a Trump-inspired bombastic bid for the state’s top office, and Karrin Taylor Robson, a former developer and member of the Board of Regents who is running a mostly self-funded and more traditional conservative campaign.
Two other candidates — former businesswoman Paola Tulliani Zen of Scottsdale and business owner Scott Neely of Mesa — also are on the ballot. In terms of spending and polling, however, both Tulliani Zen and Neely trail Lake and Taylor Robson significantly.
Ducey leaves office in January 2023 having served two terms in office. He cannot run again because of term limits. The governor has not yet endorsed a successor, though he has suggested he could do so.
Salmon’s experience focus of campaign
As a young man, Salmon served his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Taiwan. His interest in the region, and his ability to speak Mandarin, led to business and political success years later.
Salmon got his start in politics in the Arizona Senate in 1991. It was just after the tumultuous tenure of Gov. Evan Mecham — who was impeached in 1988 — which was met with a group of more moderate Republicans entering the political playing field.
Kevin DeMenna, who was at the time working in the state Senate, labeled Salmon and his peers “silk tie conservatives” — they were sophisticated, thoughtful, analytical, not reactionary, as the state had seen.
“This was a cathartic moment, guys like Matt saved the state,” said DeMenna, a lobbyist who went to work on Salmon’s 2002 gubernatorial bid and has been a Salmon supporter since then.
Salmon, a telecommunications executive, served four years in the state Legislature before being elected to Congress in 1995. After six years in Congress, he opted not to run again, keeping his promise to follow a self-imposed term limit as part of the “Contract with America,” a slate of conservative policy proposals that included tax cuts, crime reduction measures and required a balanced budget.
By the time he left Washington, Salmon had gotten two measures passed into law, the most significant pieces of his Congressional record.
One 1999 bill set aside $25 million annually for the government to help combat computer crime. A second, called Aimee’s Law, which held states financially accountable for subsequent crimes committed by released offenders, was ultimately folded into a broader criminal justice package.
Returning to Arizona, Salmon ran a campaign for governor against Democrat Janet Napolitano, who won by just 11,000 votes.
After his defeat, Salmon returned to lobbying and consulting before deciding to run for congress, and winning, in 2012. He left the nation’s capital in 2017 to lead the team of lobbyists for Arizona State University.
This is a breaking news story. Return to azcentral.com for additional updates.
Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger at st***************@ar*************.com or 480-416-5669. Follow her on Twitter @sbarchenger.
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