Rusty Bowers, the current speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, was defeated in his bid for an open seat as one of Arizona’s state senators.
The critic of former President Donald Trump was defeated by his rival, David Farnsworth, who was endorsed by Trump.
Washington Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans celebrated Bowers, but his reputation among Arizona MAGA Republicans suffered when the state speaker testified before the January 6 Commission.
Bowers noted in an interview with NBC news that the political landscape in Arizona was suffering from political tribalism, with MAGA loyalists adamantly against Bowers’s bid for the state Senate.
“It’s so hostile,” Bowers stated previously. “If I pull this off, it’s going to be a miracle.”
Trump has repeatedly attacked Bowers on TruthSocial, writing that the state speaker was “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.”
The 69-year-old politician rose to national fame when he went before the January 6 Commission to testify about the former president’s attempts to overturn the presidential election results.
Farnsworth has repeatedly backed Trump’s election lies and once stated, “The devil was behind losing that election.”
