Opinion: In the last 24 hours, state GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward has attacked House Speaker Rusty Bowers, given him an insulting nickname & endorsed his opponent in the Aug. 2 primary. Is this really how state party leaders act?
By Laurie Roberts |Arizona Republic
Arizona GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward went on a name-calling tweet storm after GOP House Speaker Rusty Bowers testified before Congress.
Just one day after House Speaker Rusty Bowers regaled the nation with the shameful scheme to overturn democracy in Arizona, Republican Party payback has begun.
State GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward has come positively unglued over Bowers’ testimony before the House Select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, wherein he reminded us that there are still are Republicans who haven’t lost their ever living minds.
Or their integrity.
In the last 24 hours, Ward has demeaned Bowers, belittled him and even embraced her inner fifth grade bully and given him a nickname: “Rusty Bowels.”
And, oh yeah, she endorsed his opponent in Aug. 2 Republican primary for the state Senate.
Parties usually don’t take sides in a primary
Let me say that again. The head of the Arizona Republican Party has taken sides in an Arizona Republican primary.
Just as she’s in the bag for a Trump-endorsed Kari Lake in what amounts to a three-way Republican primary.
Other, more professional party operatives will tell you that never happens. The party’s role, they will tell you, is to remain neutral as the candidates to duke it out a primary, then unite voters behind the party’s nominee.
Instead, we have Ward endorsing former state Sen. David Farnsworth, who is coming out of retirement to try to knock off Bowers. Farnsworth is one of the 29 legislators who in December 2020 signed onto the plan asking Vice President Mike Pence to accept the 11 “alternate” electoral votes for Trump.
