Trump supporters' death threats lead to Arizona GOP lawmaker not seeking re-election

An Arizona GOP lawmaker who has stood up to Donald Trump and his "big lie" says he won't seek re-election in part due to death threats from the former president's supporters.

Sen. Paul Boyer is one of the few Republican state senators who've criticized his chamber's partisan audit of 2020 election results in Maricopa County. And Boyer is "best known for his role as the lone Republican vote against holding the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in contempt of a Senate subpoena for election equipment," according to a report from the Arizona Agenda.

Boyer told the Agenda that "several factors" led to his decision not to seek re-election, "including anger at Senate Republican leadership (and Senate President Karen Fann specifically)" and "disillusionment with the direction of his party."

"The birth of his first son in 2019 and the death threats he received in the past year for standing up to the lie that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election in Arizona also played a significant role, he said," according to the Agenda, which noted that Boyer's family had to get police protection and temporarily leave their home.

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"I had to put security doors on my home because of some of the threats I was getting. Nobody should have to have that worry just because of a vote you've taken or didn't take," Boyer said.

Trump attacked Boyer in a statement on July 22, calling the staunchly conservative senator a "RINO if there ever was one" and "nothing but trouble." Trump also signaled support for Boyer's GOP primary challenger, former state Rep. Anthony Kern, who attended the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Responding to Trump's statement on Twitter, Boyer mocked the former president.

"Had Trump built the wall like he promised, perhaps he could've prevented the 40k #BambooBallots from being imported into Arizona," Boyer wrote. "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."

According to the Agenda, Boyer said "he wasn't pushed out by Trump's opposition." But he "acknowledged his re-election would be a lot harder with the former president's personal grudge against him and the farther-right wing of the Republican Party's bloodlust for anyone who doesn't toe the Trump line on election fraud."