House Freedom Caucus chair weighs Arizona Senate bid

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) — one of former President Trump’s most vocal supporters in Congress and chairman of the House Freedom Caucus — is weighing a run for Senate in Arizona in 2022. 

“I’m kicking the tires. We’re looking at it, talking to people, seeing what it would look like, talking about how much it would be,” Biggs told The Hill, adding that he’s “trying to gauge how much support I might have.”

His decision to explore a bid for the upper chamber comes as Trump and his allies have vowed to help boost candidates who have staunchly supported the former president and target GOP lawmakers who have rebuked him following the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6. 

Biggs said that while he is “seriously considering” a run, he has not spoken with Trump directly about jumping into the race. 

If the Arizona Republican opts to run and prevails in the primary, he would likely face off against Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who won the 2020 special election against former Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) to replace the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). 

No Republicans have officially entered the Senate race in Arizona, but Kirk Adams, Gov. Doug Ducey’s (R) former chief of staff; Maj. Gen. Michael McGuire, the head of the Arizona National Guard; Thiel Capital COO Blake Masters; and businessman Jim Lehman are rumored to be considering a bid. 

Recent internal polling, obtained by The Hill and commissioned by Biggs and conducted by Arizona-based Data Orbital, shows Biggs having a sizable lead of 36.1 percent of likely voters in the primary saying they would vote for him, followed by McGuire with 2.6 percent, Adams with 1.5 percent, Masters with 1.3 percent and Lehman with 1 percent. 

Just more than 4 percent opted for “other,” while 48.2 percent were undecided and 5 percent opted not to answer.  

While the internal poll numbers show Biggs with an early edge, it’s unclear whether the conservative can prevail in a general election in the purple state during the next cycle. 

Kelly edged out McSally by just more than 2 percentage points during the 2020 election, but Data Orbital President George Khalaf noted that Trump lost the state by a small margin, which he said indicates it’s not beyond the realm of possibility. 

“What I can tell you about the general is there was a number of individuals, including Congressman Biggs, that were surveyed, and we’re not gonna release those numbers, but I can tell you that every single person that was surveyed down to a fraction of a percent were all identical in the way that they started with Sen. Mark Kelly,” the right-leaning pollster told The Hill. 

“And the biggest differentia, like I said, was 0.9 percent. There were a handful of individuals that were surveyed, so everyone performs essentially statistically identically with each other, including Congressman Biggs,” Khalaf said.