GOP pressure on Rep. David Schweikert on display in televised debate. Here's what happened

The conservative-led pressure on Rep. David Schweikert was on full display Tuesday in a televised debate as Schweikert's challengers running to represent Arizona’s Scottsdale-area 1st Congressional District took direct aim at their absent rival.

Retired FBI Agent Kim George and businessperson Robert Backie alternately attacked Schweikert, R-Ariz., for failing to accomplish his stated priorities in office, his violation of House ethics rules, and for not taking a clear enough position in support of former President Donald Trump.

"David Schweikert claims to be a financial guru. Under his congressional leadership, the budget deficit has spiraled," Backie said in his opening remarks.

Schweikert is a budget hawk who has made the national deficit one of his top issues across his seven terms in office.

Backie called Schweikert "no-show David," charging that he has not attended campaign trail debates nor a recent community event focused on burglaries in the Scottsdale area.

Both candidates argued Schweikert hasn't spoken out enough against the law being "weaponized" against Trump and Republicans. Schweikert has generally declined to publicly criticize Trump, but he has not praised the former president as effusively as some of his GOP colleagues.

"We need a congressman that will stand up and fight and say these things are not acceptable in our government," Backie said.

"Your constituents are still waiting for you to release a statement on behalf of President Trump last week," George said, referencing the recent guilty verdict against Trump in his hush-money trial. "We're waiting."

Both candidates have raised only modest sums of campaign money. Schweikert's advantages as a seven-term incumbent member of Congress all but guarantee he will win renomination in the July 30 primary election.

Still, the debate showed the pressures that Schweikert has faced to satisfy the various wings of the Republican Party.

Schweikert's political adviser Chris Baker said that Congress has votes this week so Schweikert is in Washington, D.C.

Reached for comment after the debate, Baker brushed off the criticisms from Schweikert's challengers.

"Congressman Schweikert has always put representing his constituents before politics, and that's why he's in Washington this week while Congress is in session," Baker wrote.

The debate was hosted by Arizona’s publicly funded Citizens Clean Elections Commission.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Republican pressures on Schweikert on display during debate