Biography
Andrew Stuart Biggs was born on November 7, 1958, in Tucson, Arizona, and grew up in Arizona before earning a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University and law degrees from Arizona State University. After practicing law and working in education, he entered state politics, serving in the Arizona State House of Representatives from 2011 to 2017, including as House Speaker from 2016 to 2017. His rise in state politics coincided with a sharp rightward turn in Arizona Republican politics, and by the time he ran for the congressional seat vacated by Matt Salmon in 2016, he had established himself as one of the legislature's most conservative members. He won the primary — by a single vote over a state senator in the initial tally, with recounts and legal proceedings confirming his margin — then won the general election comfortably in a strongly Republican district.
In Congress, Biggs quickly joined the House Freedom Caucus, the hard-right bloc founded in 2015 to push Republican leadership toward more confrontational conservative governance. He rose to chair the caucus from January 2021 to January 2023, leading it through one of the most turbulent periods in recent congressional history: the aftermath of January 6, two impeachments, and the Republican effort to retake the House majority in 2022. His tenure as Freedom Caucus chair coincided with extended negotiations with Kevin McCarthy over the terms of McCarthy's speakership, negotiations that Biggs believed produced insufficient concessions. When McCarthy won the gavel in January 2023 after 15 ballots, Biggs was among those who had voted against him on every round, and he was a driving force behind the successful motion to vacate McCarthy's speakership in October of the same year.
Biggs serves on the House Judiciary Committee and has been an active participant in its oversight work, including investigations of the Justice Department and the FBI. He objected to the certification of Arizona's and Pennsylvania's Electoral College votes on January 6, 2021, and has consistently endorsed Trump's claims about the 2020 election. A brief gubernatorial run in 2022 ended in a third-place primary finish behind Kari Lake and Karrin Taylor Robson. His congressional seat, which encompasses the conservative East Valley suburbs of Phoenix, remains among the safest Republican districts in Arizona and is unlikely to be seriously contested unless district lines change substantially.
- Andy Biggs (R-AZ) represents Arizona's 5th Congressional District (East Valley/Gilbert) — an R+13 suburban Phoenix seat he has held since 2017, one of the most conservative members of the Arizona delegation and a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus.
- He served as chair of the House Freedom Caucus (2021) — the hard-right faction that has driven Republican internal battles over the speakership, government spending, and Ukraine aid, regularly forcing confrontations with Republican leadership.
- Biggs was a former Arizona state legislator and lottery winner — he won $1 million in the Arizona lottery in 1993, an unusual biographical fact for a fiscal conservative, before his political career in the state legislature and then Congress.
- He was among the most aggressive Republicans challenging the 2020 election results — requesting that Arizona lawmakers send an alternative slate of Trump electors and pressuring Arizona officials to overturn the state's certification of Biden's win.
Key Policy Positions
Immigration & Border Enforcement
Biggs has made immigration restriction the centerpiece of his congressional career. As an Arizonan representing a state that shares hundreds of miles of border with Mexico, he has consistently called for completing the border wall, ending asylum loopholes, mandating E-Verify for employers, and aggressively deporting undocumented immigrants. He has used his Judiciary Committee seat to hold hearings on crimes committed by undocumented individuals and to investigate what he describes as the Biden administration's deliberate refusal to enforce immigration law. His approach goes beyond enforcement to encompass opposition to any path to legal status for undocumented immigrants, a position that put him at odds with immigration polling efforts in previous Congresses. He supported the 2023 House majority border bill and has been a consistent critic of both Democratic and some Republican approaches to the issue.
Election Integrity & 2020 Claims
Biggs was among the Republican members of Congress most deeply involved in questioning the 2020 presidential election results. He objected to the certification of Electoral College votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania on January 6, 2021, and has consistently promoted claims that the 2020 election was compromised by fraud or administrative irregularities. He has used his congressional platform to support state-level election audits, oppose expanded mail voting, and push for stricter voter ID requirements. The House Select Committee investigating January 6 identified him as one of the members whose office was involved in discussions about alternate electors, though he denied any role. His election skepticism has remained a constant theme and is a core element of his political brand with the Arizona Republican base.
Fiscal Conservatism & Spending
Biggs consistently receives near-perfect scores from fiscal conservative organizations including the Club for Growth, the National Taxpayers Union, and the Heritage Foundation's congressional scorecard. He has voted against every major spending package of the Biden era, including the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the Inflation Reduction Act. His approach to fiscal policy is oriented around reducing the size of the federal government rather than targeted spending reforms, and he has supported budgets that would make deep cuts to discretionary and mandatory spending. His fiscal positions contributed to the dynamics that led to the McCarthy speakership struggle: he argued that McCarthy's debt ceiling deal with Biden was insufficiently conservative and gave away too much without meaningful spending controls.
Congressional Election History — Arizona 5th District
| Year | Opponent | Biggs % | Margin | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Tom O'Halleran (D, open seat) | 56.4% | +14.6 | Open seat; won primary by 1 vote (recount) |
| 2018 | Joan Greene (D) | 60.5% | +22.6 | Dem wave year; safe R district held |
| 2020 | Javier Ramos (D) | 63.3% | +27.3 | Biden year; East Valley held strongly R |
| 2022 | Robert Glenister (D) | 64.2% | +29.1 | Ran for governor in primary; won congressional seat |
| 2024 | Amish Shah (D) | ~62% | ~+24 | Safe Republican seat; comfortable win |
Arizona's 5th congressional district covers the East Valley suburbs of metropolitan Phoenix — Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, and parts of Queen Creek — an area that leans reliably Republican in House races even as statewide Arizona has trended competitive at the presidential and Senate level. Biggs's consistent double-digit margins reflect both the partisan composition of the district and his ability to win primaries as a movement-conservative figure without significant organized opposition.
Political Standing & Role in the House
Andy Biggs occupies a specific and influential niche in House majority politics: he is the institutionalized version of the Freedom Caucus insurgency, a lawmaker with the procedural knowledge and conservative credentials to translate the movement's demands into congressional leverage. His tenure as Freedom Caucus chair from 2021 to 2023 coincided with the caucus's most consequential period, when its ability to withhold votes from leadership gave it genuine power over Speaker elections, budget negotiations, and procedural questions. His role in the McCarthy speakership drama — both the January 2023 negotiations and the October 2023 motion to vacate — demonstrated that his influence is primarily exercised through leverage and obstruction rather than through the construction of affirmative legislative majorities.
His profile in national conservative media is substantial. He is a regular presence on Fox News and other right-wing outlets, where his commentary on immigration, election integrity, and government overreach reaches an audience far larger than his East Valley constituency. His brief gubernatorial run in 2022 suggested ambitions beyond the House, though his third-place finish indicated that his national visibility had not translated into a dominant position in Arizona Republican politics. He has not announced plans for future statewide races, and his House seat is secure enough that he has a stable platform from which to continue operating as a conservative movement figure within Congress.
Watch: Andy Biggs on Border Security
Congressman Andy Biggs speaks about his recent border tour, describing conditions on the US-Mexico border and his policy positions on immigration enforcement.
