Why a top White House economist thinks Arizona is 'super important' for Bidenomics

Arizona, a swing state in the Nov. 5 presidential election, doesn't just hold the electoral ticket to Biden’s seat to the White House.

It's ground zero for some of the central economic projects of his presidency, too.

In an interview Thursday with The Arizona Republic ahead of Biden’s State of the Union address, top White House economist Heather Boushey said that the investments in Arizona are “super important” for his wider economic goals.

"One of the things about the Phoenix area is just how many different manufacturers and private entities are making similar investments,” Boushey said. “They see this as a good place to invest. That kind of economic vitality feeds on itself.

“We're really excited to see investments in semiconductors, but also investments in clean power and in bio manufacturing, and in batteries across the state.”

Boushey, one of Biden’s top three economic advisers, has been an architect of "Bidenomics," the administration’s attempted "paradigm shift" geared towards reviving U.S. manufacturing and delivering for people who have been left behind by a globalizing economy.

It’s the administration’s answer to former President Donald Trump’s rallying cry to “Make America Great Again.”

Arizona has become a nucleus of that plan. The state is on track to be a major beneficiary of the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, a law geared towards promoting semiconductors, a key technology present in most electronics also known as “chips.” Phoenix has become one of the nation’s hubs for chip manufacturers, enjoying in recent months some of the largest private investments in Arizona history.

Boushey, who the White House made available for interviews ahead of the State of the Union, argued that Bidenomics is already working. She pointed to statistics showing that construction spending on manufacturing has doubled since 2021, and that consumers’ confidence in the economy is rising.

Inflation has fallen steeply since its peak during the pandemic, Boushey pointed out, and it has fallen faster than in most of the U.S.’ economic peer nations.

At the moment, though, voters seem unconvinced. Surveys suggest that many Arizonans don’t feel they have benefited from Biden’s economic accomplishments, or they think the economy was better under Trump, whose "America First" political message Boushey has argued is flawed but “appealing.”

"There is $78 billion of private sector announcements that have happened in the state of Arizona. And that is no small change. That's a lot of money. It's a lot of new construction that's going on, a lot of new manufacturing that will be stood up across the state,” Boushey said.

“As that comes online, people will see the benefits to their communities in terms of jobs, more economic vitality, a deepening of that economic base for those communities."

The rollout of Biden's industrial investments in the Phoenix area have seen some hiccups. The semiconductor company TSMC has announced several delays in its efforts to build two massive factories in Arizona: In January, they cited issues with securing government funding.

Is Boushey confident that the administration can make its economic grand theory a reality on the ground?

“Building things is hard and it takes time,” she said. “We need to make sure that our expectations are calibrated to the reality of what it means to set up these new, significant and historic facilities, and letting those companies do their job. We are doing our best to help them be successful at that."

Laura Gersony covers national politics for the Arizona Republic. Contact her at lgersony@gannett.com or 480-372-0389.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona is central to Biden economic agenda, White House adviser says