Trump backs Andy Biggs for governor but threatened to end his career during Kevin McCarthy speaker fight

WASHINGTON – Rep. Andy Biggs faced President Donald Trump’s wrath in 2023 over his refusal to support Kevin McCarthy for House speaker.

“I’ll never support you if you don’t support Kevin!” Trump told the Gilbert Republican, in an expletive-filled phone call recounted by a former McCarthy aide in a new memoir.

Under pressure from the president, Biggs and a handful of other ultraconservatives ended up dropping their opposition to McCarthy and voting “present,” clearing the way for him to win the speakership 216-212 on the 15th ballot.

Less than nine months later, Biggs – now running for governor with Trump’s blessing – helped topple McCarthy, making him the first speaker in U.S. history removed by the House.

“It was incredibly intense for the holdouts,” John Leganski, the McCarthy aide, told The New York Times last week ahead of publication of his tell-all book, “Glory, Grief and the Gavel.” “They could barely get a word in.”

Any bitterness by Trump has long passed. He endorsed Biggs for governor last year and reiterated his support Tuesday, days after the phone confrontation over McCarthy surfaced, in a Truth Social post: “Vote for Andy Biggs for Arizona Governor. He is GREAT!!!”

Biggs faces Rep. David Schweikert, R-Fountain Hills, in the July 21 GOP primary. The winner will face Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in November.

Aides to Biggs did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Rep. Eli Crane, R-Oro Valley, who was also on the receiving end of Trump’s anger during the speaker stalemate, declined to comment. 

Between Jan. 4 and Jan. 7, 2023, they and other members of the House Freedom Caucus forced vote after vote while demanding that McCarthy make various concessions.

Biggs and others in the ultraconservative bloc had spearheaded efforts to keep Trump in office after he lost the 2020 election. But when it came to McCarthy, they parted ways with Trump. 

Biggs himself launched a long-shot bid for speaker after Republicans retook the House in the November 2022 midterms. He lost the House GOP nomination for speaker to McCarthy 188-31. 

But when the House convened Jan. 3, 2023, many of the conservatives continued to hold out. Several cast ballots for Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, a founding member of the Freedom Caucus – enough to deprive McCarthy of the majority.

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Bullhead City, fell in line after McCarthy agreed to a rule change sought by conservatives, allowing any single House member to force a vote to remove the speaker. 

McCarthy’s opponents secured other concessions, including a rule requiring a three-fifths supermajority to raise taxes.

After three days and nights of voting, McCarthy enlisted the former president to pressure the remaining GOP holdouts. 

Conferenced into a call by McCarthy, Trump berated Biggs, according to Leganski.

Biggs responded that he and the other half-dozen holdouts were “just not going to change.”

Trump then demanded to speak with Crane, who’d been elected just two months earlier, claiming he had “saved” his congressional bid and threatening to push him out in the next round of primaries.

“I’ll find a challenger to him so fast his head will spin,” Trump shouted, with additional expletives, according to the memoir.

Not only had Trump endorsed Crane in 2022, McCarthy had provided $900,000 worth of support, according to campaign spending records. 

Two holdouts, Reps. Matt Rosendale of Montana and Bob Good of Virginia, dodged calls from McCarthy’s phone, apparently realizing they would get an earful from Trump, according to Leganski. 

It is unclear whether Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Matt Gaetz of Florida spoke to Trump.

“It did not surprise me that the others began to duck our calls, because I would never want to be on the receiving end of that,” he told The Times. 

Biggs and the other five holdouts voted “present” on the 15th ballot.

McCarthy was ousted Oct. 3, 2023, by the same conservative hardliners who tried to prevent his election as speaker. Gaetz orchestrated the “motion to vacate” that led to his ouster.

Every Democrat backed the motion, along with eight conservative Republicans, including Biggs and Crane. The vote was 216-210.

Those episodes are unlikely to sway Republicans in the Arizona primary, political analysts said. But Democrats could use Biggs’ acquiescence to Trump against him.

“With Trump’s approval ratings being low, and with the Democrats set to perform well in the midterms, anything they can do to exemplify Congressman Biggs being a lap dog for the president will be helpful,” said Jason Rose, an Arizona political consultant. 

Jessica Taylor, U.S. Senate and Governors editor at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, said Democrats are more likely to focus on Biggs’ reputation as a hardline conservative than on the McCarthy fight. 

“I can see Democrats using the reputation that Biggs has built in Congress as someone that stonewalls,” Taylor said. “It’s his rigid conservatism that Democrats will make an issue of.”

Kyle Kondik, managing editor at Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, also doubts that voters will pay attention to the Trump-McCarthy revelations. 

“Palace intrigue in a speaker’s vote from a few years ago is unlikely to have any bearing,” he said via email.

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