Republican Scott Neely's long-shot effort for Governor's Office prompted by God, Trump and COVID

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."

Arizona's primary is Aug. 2: Here's everything you need to know to vote

Blue and white collar background

Neely grew up in California's San Jacinto Valley, learning the concrete trade from his father who ran a building materials yard. He switched schools in high school, earning two letterman jackets that he had cut and sewn together.

The custom tailoring earned praise in the local newspaper and showed what Neely's friend and campaign adviser Stephen Lyon sees as an early sign of Neely's interest in bringing people together.

"That was a symbol of, kind of, unifying things and that's been something that stuck with him over this time," Lyon said.

Neely moved to Mesa about 20 years ago in pursuit of a romantic relationship. Though the marriage ended, Neely stayed in the Grand Canyon State after falling in love with the weather and business opportunity ⁠— he said the Valley's "hell" summers meant less competition. He bought a house and began his own concrete business ventures, wearing both blue and white collars today.

Eleven years ago he met his current wife, who introduced him to Catholicism, and between them they have five children and two grandchildren. Neely's bid for governor is a family affair; his daughter Samantha Saldana is running his campaign.

Together Neely and his wife operate a trio of businesses that pump and finish concrete and sell concrete supplies across the country, operating from a brick and mortar shop, Action Concrete Pumping Supply, on Southern Avenue in Mesa. They employ 10 people and Neely said did nearly $2 million in business last year.

The businesses keep him working "20 hours a day," but Neely is looking to take on another job as Arizona's next governor. He has no prior elected experience. And though God called him to run, another powerful influence was more hesitant.

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His wife, Maria, objected at first.

"She's all, 'You're stressful enough, running businesses with you. We got three businesses, now you want to run for governor, too?' I said, 'We'll just treat it like we got four businesses.'"

Of four Republican candidates in the primary, Neely trails in terms of fundraising. He loaned himself $79,000 of the $80,000 he raised for his campaign, according to state records current through the end of March.

He's also struggled to break out in the race, in part, he said, due to unfair treatment by the Republican Party of Arizona. Neely filed a lawsuit against the party and Chairwoman Kelli Ward in June after he was excluded from a debate and other events.

Neely said the party excluding him in favor of another candidate was another form of election fraud.

Questions of preparedness

Neely said he'd considered going into politics later in his life but was so upset by government mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic he accelerated his timeline.

He said his business didn't enforce mask mandates during the pandemic, and he repeated a theory that the World Health Organization was trying to usurp the individual power of nations by changing pandemic-related rules. Experts have said the WHO would not have power to override nations.

"I decided I better step up now before the United States becomes totally communist," Neely said.

Neely said he believed the 2020 election was stolen based on watching the widely debunked film "2000 Mules," the outcome of the Arizona Senate ballot review and another false theory that more people voted nationally in 2020 than are registered to vote.

During an interview, Neely took out his phone to look up the number of registered voters to confirm his claim, though fact checkers have deemed it false several times since the election.

Despite dozens of lawsuits nationally and in Arizona, none has provided evidence that Trump won the race over Joe Biden. The state's own ballot review confirmed Biden's win in Arizona.

"Do I think Trump won this state? Probably," Neely said, "because there's a lot of votes out there that don't exist that somehow got put on the books and I don't know how that works.

"Somebody cooked the books, I guess."

Challenged on his belief in theories of globalism and the 2020 election, Neely said he needed to do more research into the issues and have better relationships with media if he is elected.

"I'm going to have to bring in a big advisory team to advise me on those things," he said.

Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger at stacey.barchenger@arizonarepublic.com or 480-416-5669. Follow her on Twitter @sbarchenger.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Governor's Office primary 2022 candidate: Scott Neely