Democrat Marcó López worked for CBP.

 López for Governor campaign

PHOENIX — Former Nogales Mayor Marcó López, who also served as chief of staff for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, is the first candidate to enter next year’s face for governor.

It is expected to be a crowded field. No incumbent will be running, as Republican Gov. Doug Ducey is required to leave the office at the end of 2022 due to term limits.

López, 42, a Democrat, is now the president of Intermestic Partners. He said his experience in local, state and national government and, more recently, as a business owner, makes him uniquely suited to become the state’s next chief executive.

“The last nine years I’ve spent creating jobs in the private sector,” López said.

He said average Arizonans are worried about the next 10 years.

“And politicians, unfortunately, focus on four years and the next election cycle,” he said.

He was much more specific in his criticisms of the people now running the state.

He introduced campaign videos in English and Spanish that show Ducey sitting down with then-President Donald Trump at a photo op at the White House where the president touted the amount of federal cash going to Arizona for COVID-19 relief.

“Let’s face it: State leaders failed us even as the coronavirus cost us lives and hammered our economy,” López said.

Governor Sarah Palin (Tina Fey) and Senator Hillary Clinton (Amy Poehler) address the American public about sexism, the 2008 presidential election, global warming and their inability to agree on anything. Aired 09/13/08.

“Our Legislature is run by extremists, promoting bizarre conspiracy theories instead of actually getting things done for you,” he said in his video.

“You know there’s people who still refuse to acknowledge the election results were fair and balanced,” he explained later in an interview.

“Arizonans have moved on and are now worried how to get their kids to school and what jobs they’re going to have available after this pandemic eases up,” López continued. “They’re not worried about what’s happening there at the Capitol with all these conspiracy theories.”

López said he has deep roots in Santa Cruz County, where his parents had lived for years by the time he was born across the border in Nogales, Sonora.

“On the day that I was ready to be born, my mom went from our home in Nogales, Arizona, crossed into Nogales, Sonora, gave birth to me in a private clinic there that was the same place that my older sister was born in,” he said. “And the next day I was back home.”

Because he was born in Mexico, and his parents’ status was permanent legal residents, he had to get naturalized in 1996.

At age 22, López was elected mayor of Nogales, where he grew up.

He left that job when then-Gov. Janet Napolitano appointed him in 2003 to head the Arizona-Mexico Commission, and he later went on to be director of the Arizona Commerce Department.

When Napolitano resigned to become director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the Obama administration, she took López along, where he became chief of staff of Customs and Border Protection.

His political experience goes back even further, to when he was part of the advance team when Al Gore was running for president in 2000.

López founded Intermestic Partners, an international business and investment advisory group, in 2011. He said it works with “companies that are looking to invest and grow in the U.S.”

He also is an adviser to Carlos Slim and the foundation that operates in the name of the Mexican billionaire, which is involved in providing broadband access to homes. He said the foundation is on target for connecting 890,000 households throughout the country, including about 11,000 in Arizona.

One issue for all candidates, including López, is going to be campaign funding.

It took Ducey as an incumbent more than $12 million to get reelected in 2018, including $8 million funneled into the campaign by the Republican Governors Association.

López declined to detail his budget but said he intends to seek donations rather than try to self-fund his campaign. He also acknowledged he does not have high name ID in Arizona, saying he hopes to boost that by talking with voters throughout the state.

No one else has formally announced for the post.

Other possible Democratic contenders include Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton, a former Phoenix mayor.

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