WP EXCLUSIVE
How a pro-Trump youth group remade the Arizona GOP, testing democracy
Charlie Kirks Turning Point network worked to purge officials who affirmed the 2020 election results
By Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Isaac Stanley-Becker
November 4, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
PHOENIX The young conservative activist had a plan, and he wanted the veteran Arizona House speaker to push it. ... The two men huddled at a barbecue joint in January as the activist Tyler Bowyer, the chief operating officer of the pro-Trump youth group Turning Point USA unspooled his demands: Republican legislators, he insisted, should carve up booming and fast-diversifying Maricopa County, diluting the power of Democrats in a state that had helped deliver Joe Biden the presidency. ... But the Republican House speaker,
Rusty Bowers, ultimately balked at redrawing the states map to seize partisan advantage. As the pairs political differences grew, the activist, who was half the speakers age, vowed revenge. ... Rusty, I will be working toward ensuring you do not win your
election in 2022, Bowyer warned in a March text message obtained by The Washington Post. I appreciate your service, I will do whatever it takes to ensure you are retired.
Soon, the state legislator faced a rush of ridicule on social media and in negative ads as Turning Points political arm launched a campaign to Replace RINO Rusty. The speaker lost his primary for an open state Senate seat in August to a Turning Point-backed Republican who called the 2020 election a
conspiracy headed up by the Devil himself.
The takedown of one of the most powerful Republicans in the state illustrates the rise of Turning Point USA and its network of affiliates, which have pushed beyond their core mission of energizing college conservatives to turn Arizona into a laboratory for a new brand of Republican organizing. The decade-old nonprofit organization has helped transform the state GOP, seeking to elevate acolytes of former president Donald Trump and purge old-guard centrists who led in the tradition of the late
Republican senator John McCain.
The groups success is reflected in the
Republican midterm election slate nearly every statewide candidate and many of those farther down the ballot have embraced Trumps false claims that the 2020 election was rigged. The political career of
Kari Lake, the states GOP gubernatorial nominee, took off at a Turning Point event last year, and she has filled her campaign staff with former Turning Point employees. Lake has promised, if elected, to
overhaul how votes are cast and counted in this pivotal swing state.
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By Yvonne Wingett Sanchez
Yvonne Wingett Sanchez writes about voting issues in Arizona for The Washington Post. She previously covered politics for the Arizona Republic. Twitter
https://twitter.com/yvonnewingett
By Isaac Stanley-Becker
Isaac Stanley-Becker is a national political reporter. Twitter
https://twitter.com/isaacstanbecker