Turning Point USA’s political action committee is raising money for its campaign to elect far-right Rep. Andy Biggs as the next governor of Arizona.
Biggs is “one of the furthest right members of Congress who has long been associated with right-wing extremism, including the push to undermine the 2020 presidential election,” the Arizona Republic noted last year. The news outlet was reporting on Biggs’ appearance at a Second Amendment rally “that was co-sponsored by several extremist organizations, including the state’s chapter of the Proud Boys, and a student group that has promoted anti-Jewish materials.”
In 2015, Biggs, who was then president of the Arizona Senate, appeared at an event at which Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes said that Sen. John McCain should be executed—“hung by the neck until dead.” As Right Wing Watch previously reported, “Biggs sat silently alongside Rhodes, later claiming that ‘he didn’t know who or what the Oath Keepers are,’ and that speaking up would have infringed on Rhodes’ ‘free-speech rights.’”
In 2023, Biggs appeared on the Stew Peters show, which is hosted by a promoter of rabid conspiracy theories and antisemitic extremism. On the show, Biggs called the U.S. government “the most corrupt organization in the world.”
Biggs was an active participant in the “Stop the Steal” movement that sought to keep Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election and helped lead efforts in the House of Representatives to deny congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory. Stop the Steal activist Ali Alexander claimed that he “schemed” with Biggs and Reps. Mo Brooks and Paul Gosar to “put maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting,” but Biggs has denied working with Alexander.
Biggs placed blame for the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol on antifa and Black Lives Matter activists, “without any evidence,” as the Arizona Republic reported. In May 2021, Biggs complained that congressional investigations in the wake of the insurrection focused on threats posed by white supremacist militias and other far-right groups but not on “antifa.”
Biggs joined members of Trump’s legal team to pressure Arizona’s Republican Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers to replace Arizona’s legitimate electors with electors who would cast the state’s electoral votes for Trump even though the state’s voters gave Biden a win, according to testimony before the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.
Biggs’ efforts to overturn the will of Arizona voters is notable given that Tyler Bower, executive director of Turning Point PAC, says the group is targeting Arizona’s Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs both to “take back Arizona from the Democrats” and to ensure the election of a Republican president in 2028. “Arizona WILL determine the next President of the United States,” Bowyer’s email says. “If we lose here, we will lose the presidency!”
Bowyer invoked TPUSA’s slain founder Charlie Kirk in his email distributed on right-wing mailing lists Monday. “Aside from being the best husband, father, and leader he could be, Charlie’s top priority was making Representative Andy Biggs the next Governor of the Great State of Arizona,” Bowyer’s email claims.
