Rusty Bowers
What sets former Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers apart from so many of his peers these days is his conscience - and his willingness to act on it, even at enormous personal cost. A deeply devout Mormon, professional artist, and lifelong Republican, Bowers became a national figure because he refused to participate in President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Bowers was serving as speaker of the Arizona House when he found himself at the center of intense pressure from Trump and his attorney, Rudy Giuliani. They urged him to support a fake slate of electors that would overturn the will of Arizona voters. Bowers told them that first he required credible evidence of election fraud.
Trump and Giuliani assured him the evidence existed and promised to bring it to Arizona. When Giuliani later met with Bowers, accompanied by attorney Jenna Ellis, Bowers demanded to see the proof. Giuliani turned to Ellis and asked whether she had the evidence with her. Ellis replied, “I left it at the hotel.” During that same exchange, Giuliani uttered one of the most damning lines in American history: “We have lots of theories, we just don’t have the evidence.”
Bowers publicly declared there was no evidence of fraud sufficient to overturn the election and refused to participate in an illegal attempt to subvert democracy. His decision fractured his own caucus, dividing Trump loyalists from more traditional conservatives. The stand cost Bowers not only his speakership, but ultimately his seat in the Legislature.
The ordeal became even more tragic in January 2021. As Bowers and his wife cared for their dying daughter, Kacey Rae Bowers - who was battling hepatic cancer - her last weeks on earth were made more horrific by the presence of Trump supporters outside their home with megaphones and signs accusing him of horrific crimes. Threatening calls and emails poured in while the family endured her final days.
During the January 6 hearings in the U.S. House, Bowers explained his response to Trump in deeply personal terms, saying the request was “foreign to my very being.” In 2022, he received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. The Arizona Republican Party later censured him for his resistance. Bowers said he had no regrets and “would have done it again in a heartbeat.”
“I'm a believer in Jesus Christ. I don't separate my faith from any part of my life. And I made promises to him and those promises encompass everything in my life.”
MESA, ARIZONA - MAY 13, 2024