The Arizona GOP executive committee has censured state House Speaker Rusty Bowers after he testified publicly before the House committee investigation the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
The censure characterizes Bowers as opposing the GOP platform and accused him of siding with Democrats on several hot button issues including education, immigration, gender and elections.
The censure blasted Bowers for sponsoring a bill that designated sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes. They call it “one of the most horrific attacks on the Republican Party.” The Arizona GOP also claimed that Bowers killed “all meaningful election integrity bills.” Earlier this year, Bowers opposed a bill that would allow the state legislature to reject election results and another that would eliminate early voting, the Hill reports.
“[Bowers] is no longer a Republican in good standing & we call on Republicans to replace him at the ballot box in the August primary,” Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward said on Tuesday.
“Bowers has lost the confidence of a majority of Republican Party leaders and his colleagues in the legislature in the state of Arizona,” the resolution states. “The Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Arizona hereby formally censures Representative Rusty Bowers and shall immediately cease any and all recognition and support of him as a member of the Republican Party.”
Bowers testified before the Jan. 6 committee last month about pressure he received from Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the election in the state due to widespread fraud. He asked to see their evidence of fraud but he never received any. Bowers recalled to the committee that Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told him, “We’ve got lots of theories; we just don’t have the evidence.”
Bowers is running for the state Senate against David Farnsworth, a former Republican senator who echoes Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, according to the Associated Press. Trump endorsed Farnsworth after Bowers testified before the committee.
