U.S. House of Representatives
Elections In 2016, Biggs ran for Congress from the 5th District to replace retiring Representative
Matt Salmon. He led the field in the four-way Republican primary, finishing nine votes ahead of his nearest opponent, businesswoman
Christine Jones. A recanvass boosted Biggs's margin to 16 votes, and an automatic recount confirmed him as the nominee by 27 votes. His primary victory virtually assured him of being the next representative from the district; the 5th and its predecessors have been in Republican hands for all but one term since 1953. Biggs defeated
Democratic nominee
Talia Fuentes, 64.1% to 35.9%. He was not required to give up his state senate seat under Arizona's
resign-to-run laws, since he was in the last year of what would have been his final term in the chamber.
Tenure Biggs is a member of the
Congressional Western Caucus and the
Republican Study Committee. In September 2019, he replaced
Mark Meadows as chair of the
Freedom Caucus. Biggs voted for the
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. After the vote, he said the bill would "provide much-needed economic relief" to American citizens and businesses. On March 4, 2020,
Ken Buck and Biggs were the only two representatives to vote against an
$8.3 billion emergency aid package meant to help the
U.S. respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement, Biggs called the bill "larded-up" and "bloated." Ten days later, he voted against the larger
Coronavirus Response Act, which passed the House, 363–40. Biggs helped lead the congressional resistance to federal COVID-19 pandemic aid as one of a handful of lawmakers who publicly opposed all four coronavirus relief packages passed in early 2020. Biggs said "the cure is proving worse than the disease" and asked "how much longer the American people will acquiesce to unconstitutional and crushing government action."
Contesting the 2020 presidential election In 2020, Biggs joined Representative
Paul Gosar in a video claiming there was
widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. They claimed that Arizona's voting machines were faulty, and Biggs claimed that poll watchers were allowed to participate in vote tabulations in
Detroit. They also demanded an audit of
Maricopa County's vote count. Later, Biggs claimed that 10,000 Maricopa County voters were "disenfranchised" without giving evidence. In December 2020, Biggs was among 126 House Republicans to sign an amicus brief for
Texas v. Pennsylvania, an unsuccessful lawsuit that asked the
Supreme Court to overturn election results from
Georgia,
Michigan,
Pennsylvania, and
Wisconsin, thereby denying
Joe Biden from taking office as president. Biggs also spoke at rallies promoting the "
Stop the Steal" election conspiracy movement, and has claimed
antifa was behind the January 6, 2021,
storming of the U.S. Capitol. He denied that he was involved in planning the event and the riots as alleged by
Rolling Stone and a video posted by Stop the Steal organizer
Ali Alexander. In a deposition to the January 6 committee of the House of Representatives, Alexander testified that he spoke in person with Biggs before the events. On October 7, 2021, Biggs again falsely claimed that "we don't know who won Arizona in the 2020 presidential election."
2021 attack on the United States Capitol During the
2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Biggs and all other House members were ushered to a secure location when the House chamber was cleared. A video of Biggs later surfaced in which he
refused to wear a face mask during the Capitol attack, a violation of House rules at the time. Biggs subsequently
voted to object to Arizona's and Pennsylvania's electoral votes that day, joining
138 other House Republicans. On January 12, 2021, Biggs called on Representative
Liz Cheney to resign from her leadership position in the Republican caucus after she voted in favor of
Donald Trump's
second impeachment. In the aftermath of the events on January 6, Biggs's brothers William and Daniel wrote a letter to the editor of
The Arizona Republic demanding their brother's removal from office. They wrote that Biggs is "at least partially to blame" for the Capitol storming. They also condemned his refusal to wear a mask in the secure location. Biggs was one of 12 House Republicans to vote against H.R 1085 to award three
Congressional Gold Medals to the
U.S. Capitol Police who protected the Capitol on January 6. In June 2021, he and 20 other House Republicans voted against a similar resolution. The
House committee investigating the January 6 attack subpoenaed Biggs on May 12, 2022. During the committee hearing on June 21, 2022, Speaker of the Arizona House
Russell Bowers testified that Biggs called him on the morning of January 6 asking him to sign a letter calling for decertification of the Arizona electors. On June 23, 2022, witnesses confirmed that Biggs had asked for a presidential pardon for his activities related to the certification of the vote.
Foreign and defense policy Biggs was among 60 Republicans to oppose condemning
Trump's action of withdrawing forces from Syria. He,
Matt Gaetz, and a handful of other Republicans broke with their party and voted to end Saudi assistance in relation to the
War in Yemen. On March 19, 2021, Biggs voted against a House resolution to condemn the
military coup in
Myanmar. The resolution passed, 398–14, with one other member,
Paul Gosar, voting present. Biggs called the violence "tragic" but added that "there is suffering everywhere in the world" and the U.S. "can't be the military police for the entire world," saying the resolution was a way to "put our foot in the door in Burma." The resolution was symbolic and did not call for use of force. In June 2021, Biggs was one of 49 House Republicans to vote to repeal the
Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002. In July 2021, Biggs voted against the bipartisan ALLIES Act, which would increase by 8,000 the number of
special immigrant visas for Afghan allies of the U.S. military during
its invasion of Afghanistan, while also reducing some application requirements that caused long application backlogs; the bill passed the House, 407–16. In September 2021, Biggs was among 75 House Republicans to vote against the National Defense Authorization Act of 2022, which contains a provision that would require women to be drafted. In 2022, Biggs voted against a bill to provide approximately $14 billion to the government of Ukraine. In July 2022, Biggs was one of 18 Republicans to vote against ratifying Sweden's and Finland's applications for NATO membership. In 2023, Biggs was among 47 Republicans to vote in favor of H.Con.Res. 21, which directed President Biden to remove U.S. troops from
Syria within 180 days. On March 19, 2024, Biggs voted NAY to House Resolution 149, which condemned the illegal abduction and forcible transfer of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation. He was one of nine Republicans to do so.
2023 Speaker election Biggs ran in the Republican conference election for
Speaker of the House of Representatives against
Kevin McCarthy, then the
House Minority Leader. McCarthy defeated him, 188 votes to 31. In the
2023 Speaker election, fellow
Freedom Caucus member
Paul Gosar nominated Biggs. He received 10 votes on the first ballot, which, alongside nine votes for other Republican candidates, was enough to necessitate a second ballot. This made the 2023 election the first to take more than one ballot since
1923. Biggs was not nominated for the second ballot, and voted for
Jim Jordan. He did not receive any votes on ballots 2 through 13, but received two votes on the 14th ballot despite not being nominated.
Removal of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House On October 3, 2023, Biggs was one of eight Republicans who voted
to remove Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House; during the debate which preceded the vote, Biggs had criticized McCarthy for allowing the passage of a
temporary spending bill which did not include provisions to enhance
border security.
Committee assignments For the
119th Congress: •
Committee on Oversight and Accountability •
Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement •
Subcommittee on Military and Foreign Affairs •
Committee on the Judiciary •
Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance (Chair) •
Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Caucus memberships •
Freedom Caucus •
Congressional Western Caucus == 2026 Arizona gubernatorial campaign ==