Rep. Andy Biggs could be in trouble in his suburban Phoenix House district in 2022 if voters there believe the Republican was associated with the insurrectionists who ransacked the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, according to a fresh poll.
The survey from OH Predictive Insights, an Arizona firm, found that 70% of voters in Arizona’s ruby-red 5th Congressional District support federal investigations into the violent siege of the Capitol committed by grassroots supporters of Donald Trump two weeks before the former president left office. What’s more, 60% would want Biggs to resign if allegations that he assisted the rioters were proven true.
“Voters across the CD5 spectrum were appalled by the actions of the rioters at the U.S. Capitol,” the organization’s chief of research Mike Noble said in a memo released with the poll. “Andy Biggs may have to explain to his constituents whether he was involved in the planning of the event as alleged.”
The poll of 500 registered voters was conducted Tuesday and Wednesday and had a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points. In the survey, 48% of voters overall said they believed Biggs “played a role” in the insurrection, with 33% disagreeing. If the allegations that he was involved were proven true, 94% of Democrats, 63% of independents, and even 44% of Republicans would want the congressman to resign.
Biggs, a strong Trump supporter who has echoed the former president’s unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen, vehemently denies allegations that he colluded with the Jan. 6 rioters. “It just didn’t happen,” he said during appearances on local talk radio programs, as reported by the Arizona Republic. “I knew there was going to be … a couple of rallies there that day, but I did not participate and didn’t organize and did not attend.”
Meanwhile, in a letter to the editor published in the Arizona Republic, Biggs’s brothers, William Biggs and Daniel Biggs, accused the congressman of being “at least partially to blame” for the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol. Biggs is chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, a faction of combative conservatives within the House Republican conference.
Kerry Picket contributed to this report.
