Scott Neely/Campaign photo
By Stacey Barchenger | Arizona Republic
Scott Neely said God came to him in a dream and told him to run for governor of Arizona.
Between that divine intervention, Donald Trump’s inspiration as an outsider candidate and his own anger over COVID-19 mandates, Neely fast-tracked his timeline to enter politics. He is on the ballot asking voters to choose him for the Republican nomination for governor.
Neely, 41, is the race’s only blue-collar candidate, having made his living in concrete work and launching three of his own businesses.
“I’m a layered candidate, I’m sort of like an onion,” Neely said in an interview. “I have many layers and many different types of experience that I can roll into one to solve a lot of the problems for the state.”
Neely wants to improve infrastructure like roads, expand trade school opportunities and battle inflation, specifically skyrocketing costs at the gas pump, by suspending the state’s gas tax and urging the Biden administration to resume building the Keystone XL pipeline.
He wants to secure the border to stem the flow of drugs crossing from Mexico but his top issue is water, he said, pledging to fight with California to try to take a larger share of Colorado River water.
A former Californian turned tough-talking Arizonan, Neely says he’s the man to lead that fight.
“If anybody can negotiate with a Californian, it’s going to be another Californian, I’ll tell you that right now,” he said. “The difference is I was raised in the bad neighborhoods in California, so I’m not afraid of anybody. I’m definitely not afraid of (Gov.) Gavin Newsom with a nice comb-over hairstyle. Definitely not afraid of that guy.”
