Arizona GOP censures Republican House speaker who testified before Jan 6 committee

Rusty Bowers, Republican speaker of the Arizona state House, was censured by his own party on Tuesday as his political punishment for testifying to the January 6 committee continues.

The 69-year-old Republican lawmaker is likely to lose his primary election on 2 August against a Trump loyalist who has claimed that Satan helped Joe Biden steal the election from Donald Trump. But that isn’t enough revenge for allies of the former president in the state, including GOP state party chair Kelli Ward, another far-right supporter of the conspiracy theories spread by Mr Trump’s team about his election loss.

On Tuesday, the state party formally voted to censure Mr Bowers, a largely meaningless gesture that states that he is no longer in “good standing” with the party.

“The [Arizona Republican Party] Executive Committee formally censured Rusty Bowers tonight— he is no longer a Republican in good standing & we call on Republicans to replace him at the ballot box in the August primary,” Ms Ward tweeted Tuesday evening.

The resolution passed by the party went on to “encourage all registered Republicans to expel him permanently from office”.

The blowback is a result of Mr Bowers’s testimony to the House select committee investigating January 6. Mr Bowers appeared before the committee in mid-June, telling lawmakers that allies of Donald Trump including Rudy Giuliani and Congressman Andy Biggs had urged him to sign on to an effort to “decertify” the electors chosen by voters to cast the state’s Electoral College votes for Joe Biden. As part of that effort, Mr Bowers was asked to call a special session of the Arizona legislature, and refused to do so.

He also testified about threats he received from Trump supporters in the wake of his decision to break from the president’s plot to overturn the election; still, he has indicated that he would support Donald Trump for office again in 2024 while adding in subsequent interviews that he would prefer another candidate.

Arizona remains one of the most-watched states in the country as a number of key races are set to be decided in the state this year. Democratic Senator Mark Kelly is up for reelection and a Trump-backed candidate, Kari Lake, is dominating the GOP primary in the race to replace retiring Governor Doug Ducey.

The state surprised Mr Trump’s team when it went for Joe Biden in 2020 and while Republicans still dominate many statewide races Arizona now has two Democratic US senators.