Andy Biggs
Andrew “Andy” S. Biggs is a United States Congressman serving Arizona’s Fifth District. He was elected to his first term in 2016 and took office on January 3, 2017. He was reelected in November 2022. Previously he served in the Arizona Senate from January 2013 to January 2017 for the 12th district and from January 2011 to January 2013 for the 22nd district. He was president of the Arizona Senate from January 2013 to January 2017. He was a member of the Arizona House of Representatives from the 22nd district from January 2003 to January 2011.
In September 2019, Biggs became chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. He is a member of the Congressional Western Caucus and the Republican Study Committee.
Biggs is an Arizona native, having been born on November 7, 1958, in Tucson. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Asian studies from Brigham Young University, his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Arizona, and his master’s degree in political science from Arizona State University. He and his wife, Cindy, are the parents of six children. He is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is a retired attorney and was licensed to practice law in Arizona, Washington, and New Mexico.
During the 2020 presidential election, he appeared in a video with fellow Arizona Representative Paul Gosar claiming widespread voter fraud. He also signed on the amicus brief Texas v. Pennsylvania, an unsuccessful lawsuit that asked the Supreme Court to overturn Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin election results. During the storming of the United States Capitol during the electoral college vote counting, Biggs was moved to a secure location with many of his congressional colleagues. It was reported two days later that a government watchdog group asked the House Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate Biggs and two other Republican representatives over inciting the riot. On January 25, Biggs denied the allegations.[1]
In the 2022 midterm elections, Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives. In January 2023, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy made a bid to become the next Speaker of the House. After spending several weeks leading the effort to block McCarthy from ascending to the role as speaker in the House of Representatives, Rep. Andy Biggs received 10 votes for speaker on the first ballot on Tuesday — enough to keep McCarthy from winning easily. Biggs has said he doesn’t want to be speaker, but that he was willing to put himself forward to keep McCarthy from the position. By the end of the first day of the 118th Congress on Tuesday, no one had garnered the required 218 votes to secure the speaker’s gavel, making it the first time since 1923 that a new Congress will need multiple ballots to choose a speaker. McCarthy eventually elected after 15 rounds of voting.
Biggs, long a contrary voice in the House, accused McCarthy of being part of the “establishment,” and said on Twitter that he wants to “break the establishment.” His group of detractors have asked for various rule changes which they say will restore debate and the power of individual representatives in the House.
Biggs won $10 million in the American Family Publishers sweepstakes in 1992 and used the money to jump-start his political career, leading him to opportunities to serve in the Arizona House and Senate.
Biggs is the author of The Con of the Con-Con and The Doctrine of Liberty: Insights from the Book of Mormon.
