Republican Congressman Andy Biggs focused on President Donald Trump at a rally for his gubernatorial campaign on Saturday.
Biggs spoke at a rally hosted by the political arm of a conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA in his first major campaign event at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix.
Biggs applauded several of Trump’s actions and highlighted his longstanding support of the president. He said it would bring value to Arizona to have a Trump ally in the Governor’s Office.
“President Trump is giving some of the sovereignty — some of the power — back to the United States, and that means we have got to have a strong conservative governor of the state of Arizona,” Biggs told an audience of roughly 1,000.
He outlined some of his ideas to remake Arizona with more conservative ideas.
Biggs told the audience he wants to move in the direction of Florida on goals like lower taxes and faster election results.
Biggs said if he’s elected governor, he plans to pass a series of Republican bills Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed and do away with the state income tax.
“There are businesses that fly over us to go to Texas or Florida because of our income tax, they will come here and we will see more jobs available and this is going to be an economic powerhouse of a state,” Biggs said.
“The ideal was initially to be the Florida of the west, but we don't just want to be the Florida of the West. We will be the most free, most prosperous, safest state in the union,” he said.
Biggs said another one of his priorities will be the border. He said he wants Arizona to have it’s own “border czar” and indicated that he’s found a candidate for that role.
Two of the bills Hobbs didn’t support which Biggs said he would sign are: the “Arizona ICE Act,” and a bill to get faster election results in Arizona.
Hobbs vetoed the Arizona ICE Act in April. It would have required state and local law enforcement officials to cooperate with federal immigration policies and detainer requests.
In her veto letter, Hobbs said she doesn’t want to “force state and local officials to take marching orders from Washington, D.C.”
Hobbs vetoed the GOP-supported bill to speed up Arizona election results in February — arguing it would disenfranchise voters.
The bill would have moved up the deadline by which Arizona voters can drop off their early ballots, but Democrats argued it would affect hundreds of thousands of voters who are accustomed to voting at different times.
Biggs said he intends to have dinner with whoever the state Senate president and House Speaker are after the 2026 election and go over an agenda with them of all the bills he wants the Legislature to file, so they can get priority bills heard as quickly as possible.
Biggs said he will “push the pedal to the metal so that by the end of that first week i am signing all of these bills.”
The 2026 governor’s race
Trump endorsed Biggs for governor in April — four months after he endorsed Republican Karrin Taylor Robson for the same office.
Rather than rescinding his endorsement of Robson, Trump said on social media he’d give his "complete and total endorsement” to both candidates.
Biggs made no mention of Taylor Robson on Saturday, but did emphasize his track record of supporting the president.
“They’ve come after [Trump] nonstop, and it’s been my pleasure to say I've been with him at every step of the way,” Biggs said.
In 2022, Taylor Robson ran for governor, but lost in the primary election to Kari Lake. In that race, Lake touted Trump’s endorsement.
In a social media statement thanking the president for his endorsement, Biggs noted that he’s supported Trump since 2016. Taylor Robson has not, and called Trump a “drag” on the GOP in 2022.
Thanks to a ballot measure voters passed in 2022, this election will be the first time that gubernatorial candidates select a lieutenant governor who will be elected on a joint ticket.
Biggs told KJZZ he’s been approached by more than 20 people about the lieutenant governor position, but he’s undecided.
Other speakers, and the Turning Point slate
Other speakers included Republican Congressmen Eli Crane and Paul Gosar, Turning Point USA Executive Director Charlie Kirk and Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert.
The rally was also an opportunity for other Arizona candidates backed by Turning Point to rally support in their campaigns.
Secretary of state candidate Alexander Kolodin, superintendent of public instruction candidate Kimberly Yee, and both Republican Attorney General candidates Rodney Glassman and Warren Petersen all got a chance to address the crowd and call for support.
From the stage, Biggs granted Petersen his endorsement and didn’t mention Glassman.
For his part, Petersen referred to Glassman as another Democrat he’ll have to run against.
Who is Andy Biggs?
Biggs is a longtime politician representing the 5th Congressional District — a red district encompassing most of the east Valley.
He served in the Arizona Legislature from 2003 until he was elected to Congress in 2016. For four of those years, he was the Arizona Senate president.
Biggs served as the chair of the far-right Congressional Freedom Caucus from 2019 until 2022. That caucus inspired a group of the same name in the Arizona Legislature.
Biggs’ history of election denialism
Since 2020, Biggs has claimed without evidence that Trump did not lose to former President Joe Biden in that year’s election. Biggs claimed Arizona’s voting was affected by voter fraud and supported the audit of Maricopa County ballots Republican legislators pushed for.
The audit ultimately confirmed Biden’s win.
Ali Alexander, the organizer of the Stop the Steal rally, claimed Biggs helped him plan the day. Biggs has denied that claim.
Former Arizona Republican House Speaker Rusty Bowers testified at a United States House hearing that Biggs called him on Jan. 6 and asked him not to certify the presidential election results.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated to correct a sentence that said Biggs is running for another office. He is running for governor. Also, Biggs did not speak at the "Stop the Steal" rally.
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