Jan. 6 witness Rusty Bowers loses to Trump-backed challenger in Arizona

Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R), who offered dramatic public testimony to the House Jan. 6 select committee about his resistance to the pressure campaign on state officials waged by former President Trump to overturn the 2020 election results in the state, has lost his reelection bid.

State Sen. David Farnsworth, who was endorsed by the former president in late June, has been projected to win the race by The Associated Press and several other news outlets.

In June testimony before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, Bowers disputed the characterization of a conversation that he had with Trump following the 2020 election. 

Bowers refuted a claim made by the former president that he told Trump that he had won Arizona and that the election was rigged, saying he never made either of those statements.

He also testified that Trump’s campaign lawyer Rudy Giuliani offered no concrete evidence of election fraud.

“My recollection, he said, ‘We’ve got lots of theories, we just don’t have the evidence,’” Bowers said.

“And I don’t know if that was a gaffe or maybe he didn’t think through what he said, but both myself and others in my group … both remember that specifically, and afterwards we kind of laughed about it,” he said. 

Trump’s endorsement is part of a larger revenge tour against Republicans whom he believes have crossed him following the 2020 election and Capitol attack.

Updated at 8:55 a.m.