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Trump Enemy, Arizona State Senator Boyer, Will Not Seek Reelection

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


Going against Donald Trump is tantamount to career suicide for any Republican looking to keep their job as another anti-Trump Republican has discovered.

Arizona State Senator Paul Boyer, who was a thorn in the side of his fellow Arizona Republicans during its audit of the 2020 presidential election, has announced that will not seek reelection, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Sen. Paul Boyer said this week that he will serve out the remaining year of his term and then move on to other pursuits. The Glendale lawmaker said opponents in his party will need to put up with him for his remaining year in office, however, meaning he’ll retain the ability to thwart some key initiatives the slim one-vote GOP majority failed to get past him in this year’s legislative session.

One of Boyer’s top moves was blocking Senate President Karen Fann’s effort to hold the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in contempt. Fann wanted the board to immediately hand over ballots from the 2020 election under a subpoena so she could conduct an unprecedented partisan review of President Biden’s victory, but board members balked, saying they could not legally hand over 2.1 million voted ballots.

She eventually won and conducted a recount that found Biden beat former President Trump.

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Boyer’s refusal to back Trump supporters as they sought the recount brought Boyer a slew of threats, and he briefly moved his family in February for fear of violence. That toxic atmosphere inside and outside the Capitol is one of the reasons Boyer decided to leave the Legislature after serving a decade.

In an email to his supporters, Trump heralded the news of the end of Boyer’s career.

“Great news for Arizona, Senator Paul Boyer, a RINO obstructionist, is done. Congratulations to Karen Fann and all of the other Republican Patriots who have worked so hard to reveal the Presidential Election Fraud of November 3rd!” he said.

In July, Trump sent another email calling Boyer a “RINO” and “nothing but trouble.”

“Republican Arizona State Senator Paul Boyer, a RINO if there ever was one, is doing everything in his power to hold up the damning Forensic Audit of Maricopa County which has been taking place over the last 90 days. The people of Arizona are demanding it. Boyer has been nothing but trouble, and nobody knows why. All we demand is Voter Integrity! He is being primaried by a strong and highly respected challenger, former Arizona State Representative Anthony Kern,” he said.

Boyer promptly took to his Twitter to go after Trump right back.

“Had Trump built the wall like he promised, perhaps he could’ve prevented the 40k #BambooBallots from being imported into Arizona. And if he hadn’t started an insurrection in D.C. and gotten kicked off here, I could’ve responded directly to him. So there’s that,” he said.

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Boyer stood against the audits for a long time, after first supporting them, and efforts were led by his constituents to get rid of him, but to no avail.

“It makes us look like idiots,” he said to The New York Times. “Looking back, I didn’t think it would be this ridiculous. It’s embarrassing to be a state senator at this point.”

And what triggered Trump is Boyer refusing to enforce the subpoena against Maricopa County election officials, The Tennessee Star reported.

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This week, Boyer cited the current political climate in the state and the nation as reasons for his departure.

“I’ve never seen it so toxic, and that’s more on a personal, member-to-member basis,” he said. “It’s not just in closed caucus. It’s also publicly as well as social media, where members have to feel like they need to talk to the base and tell them that they’re a fighter and they’re fighting against the moderates or whatever they’re calling me these days.”

“I can leave and feel good about it at this point,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to do a certain amount of good that I could never do anywhere else.

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