How a pro-Trump youth group remade the Arizona GOP, testing democracy

[mahatmakanejeeves]

WP EXCLUSIVE

How a pro-Trump youth group remade the Arizona GOP, testing democracy

Charlie Kirk’s 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 state’s map to seize partisan advantage. As the pair’s political differences grew, the activist, who was half the speaker’s 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 Point’s 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 group’s success is reflected in the Republican midterm election slate — nearly every statewide candidate and many of those farther down the ballot have embraced Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged. The political career of Kari Lake, the state’s 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

[CurtEastPoint]

1. Here's little Tyler (snicker) and his ultimately slappable face. Smug prick

[jimfields33]

2. Republicans can run their primaries anyway they want.

They certainly are purging the old guard that’s for sure. Eight out of 10 politicians who voted for Trump’s impeachment are gone. It’s scary but it’s their party. Luckily we are sure footed and right on issues.