Jan. 6 Hearing Witness Rusty Bowers Defeated By Trump-Backed Candidate In Arizona Primary

LOADING ERROR LOADING Arizona state Rep. Rusty Bowers, who gave emotional testimony describing former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, was defeated Tuesday in the Republican primary for a state Senate seat by a Trump-backed candidate. “Rusty Bowers is a RINO coward who participated against the Republican Party in the totally partisan unselect committee of political thugs and hacks the other day and disgraced himself, and he disgraced the state of Arizona,” Trump declared at a rally in Prescott Valley last month, using the acronym for “Republican in name only.” He endorsed Farnsworth on Truth Social earlier in July, saying Bowers needed to lose and that “highly respected David Farnsworth is the man to do it.” There were relatively few policy differences between the two men, save for their starkly different views on the 2020 election. Bowers’ defeat is another road sign on the Republican Party’s journey toward a fully anti-democratic entity willing to brush aside fair elections, fueled by a personality cult fully dedicated to Trump and his political fortunes. Bowers told the Jan. 6 committee that Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuilani initiated an extreme pressure campaign immediately after the election, urging Bowers to use his powers as House speaker to substitute Biden electors with electors loyal to Trump to change the Electoral College count.