House Speaker Rusty Bowers, R-Mesa. /Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror
By Ray Stern | Arizona Republic
Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers filed paperwork to run for the state Senate on Friday, setting up what may be an epic primary battle that highlights Republican divisions over the 2020 presidential election results.
The longtime Mesa politician and professional artist stood his ground in December 2020 when former President Donald Trump and lawyer Rudy Giuliani tried to convince him to help overturn the election in Arizona. Right-wing protesters picketed his home last year, calling him a “traitor” and launching an ultimately unsuccessful recall campaign against him.
This year, he’s positioned himself as a bulwark against waves of election-related bills by colleagues in the Legislature who believe that the 2020 election was marked by widespread fraud.
Bowers had previously said he wouldn’t run again for a seat in the Legislature. But he and his family had “strong feelings” that maybe it was not time to leave — and then came last weekend’s demonstration at his house. He said about 30 people associated with Daniel McCarthy, a one-time congressional candidate who helped run the recall against Bowers, gathered at the road leading to his home with balloons and signs that claimed Bowers was “trying to steal our vote.”
“I don’t want to be bullied out of service,” Bowers said in an interview on Friday. “That bully caucus that surrounds me at times wears on you, but then you start thinking … what’s the physics of getting stronger? It’s … contrary force.
“I’m not going to let them silence at least some type of sanity in the Senate, ’cause I haven’t seen a lot.”
