After spending the past several weeks leading the effort to block GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California from ascending to the role as speaker in the House of Representatives, Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona received 10 votes for speaker on the first ballot on Tuesday — enough to keep McCarthy from winning. 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.
Not that McCarthy has been knocked out of the race yet — he was the top GOP vote-getter on Tuesday. Brigham Young University political science Professor Jeremy Pope told the Deseret News that McCarthy is still the man to beat going into Wednesday, but the longer it takes the greater chance Biggs has to oust him.
“I suppose McCarthy’s going to fade over time, because people aren’t going to want to vote again and again just to show he doesn’t have the votes,” Pope said. “McCarthy still has a few more days to make some sort of deal, but what does Biggs and his group want that they haven’t already tried to hammer out?”
Biggs, long a contrary voice in the House, has 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. Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, who also voted against McCarthy, gave a speech Tuesday arguing “fiscal conservatives” want the House rules changed so bills like last month’s $1.7 trillion omnibus bill won’t pass without rigorous debate.
Biggs has represented Arizona’s 5th congressional district, which includes Gilbert, since 2016. He is a former chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. Before his election to the House, Biggs served in the Arizona state legislature for 14 years.
His path to Congress was an unusual one. Biggs graduated from Brigham Young University in 1982, then went on to earn a master’s and Juris Doctor degree from the University of Arizona.
After law school, Biggs worked as an attorney. But then his life changed overnight when he won a $10 million sweepstakes contest in 1993 from American Family Publishers. Biggs used the money to jump-start his political career, leading him to opportunities to serve in the Arizona House and Senate, where he served as president, before getting elected to Congress.
A champion of the political right, Biggs boasts of high lifetime ratings from conservative organizations like Heritage Action and Club for Growth for his voting record in Congress. He also chaired the House Freedom Caucus and has been a vocal defender of former President Donald Trump.
“Biggs makes the public case for the conservative position,” The Arizona Republic once opined. “To keep an eye on what congressional conservatives are thinking and advocating, Biggs is increasingly one to watch.”
Testimony from a witness to the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol said Biggs was one of several Republican lawmakers who sought pardons before Trump left the White House. Biggs denied he ever sought a pardon and refused to comply with a subpoena to appear before the committee. Last month he was named as one of four Republican members of Congress referred to the House Ethics Committee for failure to comply.
This is Biggs’ second time in two months facing off against McCarthy in an election over who will become the next speaker.
In November, Biggs ran against McCarthy in an effort to win the GOP House Conference nomination for speaker. He lost by a vote of 188 to 31. But Biggs didn’t see his loss as a failure. He said it was proof that McCarthy didn’t have the support necessary to unify Republicans and garner the 218 votes needed to become speaker.
Biggs was proven correct Tuesday, at least for the first three ballots. A cohort of five Republicans, including Biggs, have spoken publicly for months about their opposition to McCarthy’s bid to be the next speaker. This so-called “Never Kevin” group of Republicans have vowed to only support other Republican candidates regardless of the number of ballots needed, thereby blocking McCarthy from becoming speaker.
McCarthy subsequently vowed to not drop out of the race no matter how many ballots are needed. A number of Republican members forming an “Only Kevin” group have said they will only vote for McCarthy, setting up a stalemate situation.
Biggs’ supporters said they believe “an increasing number” of their Republican colleagues will abandon McCarthy for a “consensus candidate.” On the second and third ballot, Biggs and his followers nominated and voted for Republican Rep. Jim Jordan from Ohio to become speaker. However, Jordan said he doesn’t want to be speaker. Roy and others said Jordan’s reluctance to accept the position and his relative popularity with the GOP conference is why the rebel Republicans put his name forward.
But Professor Pope isn’t sure there is a lot of promise in a Speaker Jordan led Congress. “I’m a little skeptical of Jim Jordan being the consensus candidate. He has a long history of being a strident conservative and fire breathing Republican,” Pope said. “It’ll be easier for someone a little less bombastic.”
Earlier this week, McCarthy attempted to compromise with some of the detractors’ demands. But they issued a letter expressing their disappointment and said his offer was “impossibly late to address continued deficiencies ahead of the opening of the 118th Congress.”
Congress is stuck in a stalemate until someone receives a majority of votes cast. An unlikely resolution is the absence of Democratic votes in future ballots. This would lower the vote threshold needed by McCarthy to secure the speaker’s gavel. While this scenario was whispered about during the first day, sources have told CBS reporter Robert Costa that neither Democrats nor Republicans expect this outcome anytime soon.
In the meantime the fate of the speakership hangs in the balance.