• Trump has endorsed former Sen. David Farnsworth to take out AZ House Speaker Rusty Bowers.
  • Farnsworth spoke to me for 2.5 hours about why he's challenging Bowers, a prominent Jan. 6 committee witness.
  • It was a window into how faith, conspiratorial thinking, and the conservative movement intersect.

    MESA, Arizona — Even as he's in the midst of his seventh campaign for office in Arizona, David Farnsworth insists that he really, really, really doesn't like politics.

    "I am confident that anywhere there's a consolidation of money and power, evil people are going to congregate there," he says. "It's unpleasant business, a lot of deal making, which just doesn't fit my personality."

    Farnsworth, who served in the Arizona Senate from 2013 until 2021, is now emerging from retirement to take on Rusty Bowers, a former colleague and the outgoing speaker of the Arizona House. The 71-year-old has been recruited by Republican figures in Arizona who say the 2020 election was stolen, and who view Bowers — recently a star witness at a June hearing of the January 6 committee — as a turncoat who stands in the way of advancing the MAGA agenda.

    Sitting in his home office as his wife, Robin, looked on, Farnsworth spoke with me about his abiding faith as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, his reasons for challenging Bowers, and how those two things intertwine.

    Farnsworth is competing against Bowers, who's term-limited from continuing to serve in the House, for the prize of representing the newly-drawn 10th legislative district in the Arizona Senate. Covering the eastern half of Mesa, the district has a strong conservative bent, and the winner of the August 2 primary is almost certainly likely to serve come January 2023.

    Shortly after Bowers' June testimony, Farnsworth earned the official backing of former President Donald Trump, Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward, and Republican Rep. Andy Biggs, a former House Freedom Caucus chair who represents Mesa in Congress.

    On the plane from Washington to Phoenix earlier this month, I contacted both Farnsworth and Bowers for a story about the primary, which is shaping up to be the latest stop on an ongoing revenge war by the former president against his intra-party political foes. The election also poses an intriguing juxtaposition with the January 6 committee, given the timing of the primary just weeks after Bowers' testimony.

    Once I landed, I gave Farnsworth a call.

    Before he would fully agree to an interview, he asked what Insider's partisan leanings were (nonpartisan) and what my own opinions of Trump might have been. I replied that Trump was "certainly a consequential president" and "someone who is clearly going to continue to have significant sway over the future of the party."

    And before handing over his address, he had one final question.

    "My favorite thing to do is have discussions where I mix patriotism and religion," he said. "Are you comfortable with doing that?"


    Former Sen. David Farnsworth at his home in Mesa, Arizona on July 13, 2022.
    Bryan Metzger/Insider

    I recognized the shelves as Farnsworth's backdrop at a virtual debate he'd had with Bowers just days earlier. Despite the fact that many of the MAGA-aligned forces backing Farnsworth are intent on seeing Bowers fall, I had been struck by the congenial, low-key nature of the debate.