About
Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2017, representing Arizona’s 5th Congressional District. He won reelection in 2022 with Trump’s endorsement and 57% of the vote, but the race proved to be unexpectedly close in his heavily Republican district.
After servind as chairman of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus from 2019–21, Biggs is still a member of the group, which is essentially considered a third party given its extremism and inability to work with other congressional Republicans. He is also a member of the House Judiciary and Oversight & Accountability committees and is a cofounder of the War Powers Caucus and vice chair of the Border Security Caucus, a coalition of conservative congressional Republicans pushing for a more heavily militarized border between the U.S. and Mexico.
From 2003–11, Biggs served as a member of the Arizona House of Representatives and was subsequently elected to the Arizona Senate, where he served from 2011–17. In 2018 and 2020, his campaigns received support from the Koch network.
Biggs’ ties to right-wing extremist groups predate the insurrection. In 2019, he spoke at an event associated with the American Guard, the Patriot Movement AZ, and AZ Patriots, according to The New York Times. All three are designated as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
After the 2020 presidential election, Biggs was in close contact with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows about various ways to overturn the results and prevent President Biden from taking office. He also objected to certifying the Electoral College results and voted against both impeaching Trump for inciting the mob and establishing a special House committee to investigate the insurrection, among other measures.
January 6, 2021
- On Jan. 4, Biggs announced that he would object to the results of the 2020 presidential election on the unfounded—and later debunked—claim that the voting process in Arizona had lacked integrity.
- The congressman drew national attention when videos surfaced of right-wing personality Ali Alexander saying that Biggs had been a central figure in organizing the Jan. 6 Stop the Steal rally at the Capitol.
- In since-deleted videos posted in December 2020, Alexander told viewers he had planned the rally—which devolved into the riotous insurrection—with Reps. Biggs, Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), and Mo Brooks (R-Ala). In one video, Alexander said that he and the congressmen had “schemed up putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting.” In video footage, Alexander also referred to Biggs as one of his “heroes.” Biggs denies participating in planning the rally.
- The New York Times reported that at a Stop the Steal rally on Dec. 19, 2020, Alexander played a video recorded by Biggs. His wife, Cindy Biggs, was seen speaking with Alexander at that event.
- Before the Jan. 6 insurrection, Biggs appeared on Fox News with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to voice his disapproval of election results in Arizona, the state he represents. “I’m gonna argue election integrity…. I’ll talk about the allegations of fraud,” Biggs said.
- Rusty Bowers, the Republican speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, told the House Select Committee investigating the attack on the Capitol that Biggs called him on the morning of Jan. 6 asking him to support the decertification of electors.
- As Trump supporters began to storm the Capitol, the House was in the middle of a heated debate over the results of the election in Arizona. Biggs, who cast a vote objecting to the legitimacy of the results in his state, was one of 147 House Republicans who refused to certify Biden’s win of the 2020 presidential election.
- Biggs voted against impeaching Trump for his role in inciting the mob that disrupted congressional certification of the presidential election.
- He also voted against establishing a House committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.
The Big Lie
- On Nov. 7, 2020, following Trump’s Nov. 5 assertion that he had “easily” won the election, Biggs tweeted: “President Trump, keep fighting. The American people support you and stand with you in your endeavors to expose and eradicate the corruption of the deep state and establishment, and to ensure integrity across all of our election systems in every state and locality.”
- Biggs was among 34 Republican members of Congress who exchanged texts with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows about various schemes to overturn the election results—both before and after the events of Jan. 6, according to TPM.
- Liz Harris and Bobby Piton—prominent promoters of the QAnon conspiracy theory and of the false claim that Trump won Arizona in the 2020 presidential election—posted a video reportedly depicting them speaking with Biggs about the election.
- On Dec. 1, 2020, Biggs and 36 other Republican House members submitted a letter to Attorney General Bill Barr asking him to investigate “a number of anomalies, statistical improbabilities and accusations of fraud” during the presidential election. He had also signed a congressional letter sent to Barr on Nov. 6 requesting that the Justice Department investigate the “vote counting process” in particular.
- On Dec. 2, 2020, Biggs appeared on Fox News alleging “fraud and misconduct” in the Arizona election. He then tweeted the taped interview, along with a call for a “forensic audit” of the election.
- On Dec. 9, 2020, Biggs joined 27 fellow House Republicans in sending a letter to President Trump urging him to demand that Attorney General Bill Barr investigate reported irregularities in the 2020 presidential election.
- On Dec. 10, 2020, Biggs signed an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the results of the presidential election in four swing states: Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
- In the months following the election, Biggs repeatedly doubled down on his support of Arizona’s election audits, which he justified by false claims of fraud and irregularities in the 2020 voting process.
- As Trump campaigns for reelection in 2024, Biggs continues to show his unquestionable loyalty. In response to the first of the series of indictments against the ex-president in 2023, he released a statement saying, in part, “Never in my life have I seen America’s institutions as weaponized against conservatives as they are today. A Leftist District Attorney funded and selected by George Soros has elevated a misdemeanor stemming from a minuscule accounting error into a felony due to his opposition to the former president’s politics.”
Election Audits
- In March 2021, Arizona’s GOP-led state Senate contracted with Cyber Ninjas, a cybersecurity consulting firm with no experience in election audits and led by an election conspiracy theorist, to oversee an audit of the 2020 election results in Maricopa County. Biggs repeatedly voiced his support of the partisan audit:
- In April he toured the audit site and then tweeted his support of the ongoing process.
- Although a review of the ballots in Arizona confirmed that Biden had won the state by about the same margin as reported in 2020, Biggs continued to cast doubt on the results, claiming that “we don’t know” who won in the state he represents.
Top contributors for the 2024 election cycle.
The organizations themselves did not donate, rather the money came from the organization's PAC, its individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals' immediate families.
| Organization Name | Total | PACs | Individuals |
|---|---|---|---|
| House Freedom Fund | $40,725.00 | $5,000.00 | $35,725.00 |
| Dj Investment Group | $6,600.00 | $0.00 | $6,600.00 |
| Bill Luke Auto Group | $6,200.00 | $0.00 | $6,200.00 |
| 21st Century Healthcare | $6,000.00 | $0.00 | $6,000.00 |
| Western Mutual Insurance | $5,200.00 | $0.00 | $5,200.00 |
| Buckeye Liberty PAC | $5,000.00 | $5,000.00 | $0.00 |
| Patriot Freedom PAC | $5,000.00 | $5,000.00 | $0.00 |
| Phoenix Defense | $5,000.00 | $0.00 | $5,000.00 |
| Hess | $3,700.00 | $0.00 | $3,700.00 |
| We the People Leadership PAC | $3,500.00 | $3,500.00 | $0.00 |