The Arizona Chamber of Commerce director of events and as of just a year ago, an ASU graduate, Taylor McArthur’s already full career is about to grow. He is now a State Senate candidate, running on a platform that centers on supporting entrepreneurship and education in Arizona.
McArthur, who graduated from the Walter Cronkite School in December of 2012, is running for the Arizona State Senate in legislative district 16.
While still in high school, the Gilbert native started a commercial cleaning company to make extra money.
His love of entrepreneurship continued during his time at the Cronkite School, when he had the idea to turn an old family recipe into a business. The Edson Student Entrepreneurship Initiative liked his idea so much that they invited him to join the program.
Brent Sebold, former head of the initiative, said McArthur displayed an excellent work ethic while he developed his company.
“Just like all startups, you’re groping around in the dark,” Sebold said. “You don’t know what to do next because you’re creating something from scratch.”
McArthur’s performance was impressive because of his resilience and perseverance, Sebold said.
“You’ve got to have a thick skin to be an entrepreneur … he’s like a pit bull,” he said. “Once he sets his mind to accomplishing a goal, he’s going to go after it 100 percent.”
McArthur views the business that he started as part of the Entrepreneurship Initiative as an experience that helped shape him.
“(The startup) allowed me to learn a ton about entrepreneurship and just see how Arizona is becoming a hub for entrepreneurs,” McArthur said.
It was also during his time at the Cronkite School that McArthur became interested in politics. While still part of the entrepreneurship program, he landed an internship with then-U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl.
“I started to see that relationship between business and government and how it’s so important that you have good policies in order to let entrepreneurs especially be able to start and grow business in the state,” McArthur said.
Those connections became more apparent after he earned a full-time job as a press aide and manager at U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar’s office in Casa Grande.
He continued to work at Rep. Gosar’s office after his graduation from ASU in December of 2012. Soon after, he became the director of events at the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, a position he currently holds.
McArthur believes that his experience in both the private sector and government should prove his legitimacy as a candidate.
“I would point to my experience with Congressman Gosar’s office, point to my experience at the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and point to my experience in business and I think that I am ready and I do have enough experience to run for the Senate,” McArthur said.
His mentors at ASU also believe that he prepared for this next step in his career.
“Taylor was an excellent student,” said Dan Gillmor, McArthur’s instructor in his digital media entrepreneurship class. “He was clearly someone with brains and ambition.”
Sebold said McArthur is the type of person who will get things done.
“A lot of times politicians want to sit around a boardroom table and hypothesize about what should be done,” Sebold said. “Taylor is the kind of guy, because of his entrepreneurial experience, he’s going to actually go out there and roll up his sleeves and get the job done.”
McArthur’s policies are based on promises of fewer regulations and less government intrusion. He believes the focus should be placed on creating more opportunities for entrepreneurs like himself, McArthur said.
McArthur is also pushing for more funding in education and the raising of the Common Core Standards. His idea is that by improving education, opportunities for younger Arizonans will improve as well.
However, McArthur didn’t specify which regulations he would cut or in what way the standards need to be raised. That is because he views himself as a different type of candidate, he said.
“I’m so tired of people who go down to the legislature and have made their mind up on every single issue before they’ve even heard one word of argument on the issue,” McArthur said. “I think we need people who will go down there … listen to both sides of the argument … and make a decision based on what makes sense, make a decision based on what is best for Arizona. We have too many people down there who are self-serving.”
In the end, for McArthur, it all comes back to opportunities. He has built himself up on the numerous opportunities that he took advantage of, from the Edson Entrepreneurship Initiative at ASU to his job at Rep. Gosar’s office.
McArthur is concerned that opportunities like those are becoming harder to find even for those who work hard, he said.
“It’s important to me that someday I can look at my kids and tell them the same thing my parents told me, that if you work hard, you can accomplish anything,” McArthur said. “But it needs to be true.
“I’m running because I think we need to do everything we can to preserve that opportunity in society.”
Contact the reporter at agnel.philip@asu.edu
