Interesting. I’m not sure what particular incident changed his mind, but Arizona State House Speaker Rusty Bowers has announced that no way will he ever vote for Trump again. Maybe it was that censure by the Arizona Republican Party that woke Bowers up?
Arizona House Speaker doubles back, says he’ll ‘never’ vote for Trump again
Arizona state House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R) on Sunday said he’ll never vote for former President Trump again, a reversal of earlier claims that he’d back Trump in a match-up against President Biden.
“I’ll never vote for him, but I won’t have to. Because I think America’s tired and there’s some absolutely forceful, qualified, morally defensible and upright people, and that’s what I want. That’s what I want in my party and that’s what I want to see,” Bowers told moderator Jonathan Karl during an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”
The Arizona lawmaker called Trump a “demagogue” who maintains hold on his base through “thuggery and intimidation.”
You all may remember that Bowers gave testimony to the Jan 6th Committee about Trump’s attempt to overturn the election results in AZ.
Bowers, who has served a combined 17 years between Arizona's state House and Senate, shot to the forefront of the political universe last month when he recounted to the Jan. 6 committee how Trump and his allies sought his help to invalidate the 2020 election results, something he knew to be unconstitutional.
"It is a tenet of my faith that the Constitution is divinely inspired, that this is my most basic foundational belief," Bowers, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, told the committee. "And so for me to do that because somebody just asked me to, is foreign to my very being; I will not do it."
Bowers said his stance caused longtime friends to turn against him. He teared up as he detailed the harassment he and his family faced as a result of refusing Trump's demands. He said he has faced repeated protests at his home, adding that supporters of the former president have driven trucks through his neighborhood with video panels claiming he is "a pedophile and a pervert and a corrupt politician."
Much of the vitriol came as his adult daughter was gravely ill and living with him. She died just weeks after the Capitol riot.
"So it was disturbing," he testified. "It's disturbing."
Trump told a lie that Rusty Bowers agreed with him there was massive fraud in AZ. Bowers stated he said no such thing. In fact, he asked some of Trump’s cronies where is the proof? And he got the “We have a lot of theories..” BS from Giuliani.
But guess what? Bowers would still vote for Trump because “he did a lot of good things” before that whole COVID thing. Bowers was cited on several MSNBC shows as another example of Republicans who simply could not quite Trump, even after he tried a coup to overturn the government.
But I think that censure and watching his political career circling the toilet bowl has changed Bower’s mind. Most do not think that Bowers will survive his primary that is coming up. Even Bowers believes that.
So we seem to have a partial answer to that eternal question: “What will make a Republican politician break with Trump?” It may be having their political careers come to an end. It certainly isn’t little things like fomenting an insurrection or sending thugs to your home that will make a Republican change his/her mind about voting for Trump.