Former Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Biggs is ready to leave Capitol Hill.
“Congress really is, in its own weird way, irredeemable,” he told NOTUS in a recent interview.
As he runs for governor in Arizona, Biggs explained that during his more than eight years on Capitol Hill, he watched the Freedom Caucus push for rules amendments and “personnel changes at the top” — a veiled reference to Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s 2023 ouster — but that “it always reverts back to the mean.”
“It goes to something President Trump said as he was leaving D.C. after his first term,” Biggs said. “It turns out the swamp is deeper than we ever thought.”
That’s not to say Biggs doesn’t believe in the Freedom Caucus he once led. He said the cohort of a few dozen conservatives had “pulled the entire conference to the right.” It’s just that, he explained, Congress is not the forum to push for conservative reform.
“For a long time, I’ve been a believer of federalism,” Biggs said, “and I believe that, ultimately, the states are the engine that’s going to drive this country back to a true constitutional republic.”
Biggs is not the only member of the House Freedom Caucus to come to that conclusion. For whatever reason, Reps. Ralph Norman and Byron Donalds are also running for governor in South Carolina and Florida, respectively. Rep. Chip Roy announced this week that he is running for Texas attorney general. Rep. Barry Moore is running for Alabama Senate. And Reps. Tom Tiffany and Andy Ogles have also floated state-wide runs.
The House Freedom Caucus, as Washington knows it, will look fundamentally different next year. Some staffers — particularly delighted Democrats — are speculating that with so many ideological leaders of the caucus looking for the exits, the group might functionally cease to exist, or, at least, cease to be a serious thorn in leadership’s side.
“The outcome of Chip leaving is a more productive Congress,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden told The Hill this week. “He’s been a contrarian, and he’s been an obstructionist.”
Conservatives insist that’s not the case. If anything, they told NOTUS, the move from Congress to the states is an important development for the conservative movement.
“The House Freedom Caucus is an institution that’s built to last,” Andy Roth, president of the State Freedom Caucus Network, told NOTUS.
“There was pearl-clutching when Mark Meadows, Raúl Labrador and Ron DeSantis all left the House Freedom Caucus to go back home or to work in the White House, and a new crop of conservatives just slotted in and took their place,” he continued. “Raúl is the attorney general in Idaho. DeSantis, obviously, the governor. So this is sort of the second wave.”
A former Freedom Caucus member expressed a similar sentiment, telling NOTUS that while “only a few will be able to make the leap like Ron DeSantis and Raul Labrador,” older members leaving would allow for “a new team of leaders to emerge within the HFC ranks like Eli Crane, Eric Burlison, Brandon Gill and Keith Self.” Each of those members has made a name for himself with surprising “no” votes on key legislation and eye-popping, sometimes offensive rhetoric on social media and during hearings.
“The challenge for this new group will be not how to say NO but how to transition to Yes,” this former member said. “There is power in being able to do both and no power when you can only say YES or only say NO.”
But as this former member suggested, it may not be so easy for all these Freedom Caucus candidates to win. As early polling indicates, several of these statewide races will be competitive, if not long shots, for the HFC members. At least one messy primary between Norman and MAGA firebrand Rep. Nancy Mace is already underway in South Carolina.
After years of Freedom Caucus members fighting for conservative outcomes in Congress, that brand of politics might not sell in some states. If anything, it could be a liability.
Arizona, for example, has a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators. Biggs is already highlighting his bipartisan credentials, referencing his work on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and Authorization for Use of Military Force with Democrats to NOTUS.
But Biggs isn’t exactly hiding from his conservative record, either.
He was one of eight lawmakers to proudly vote to remove McCarthy two years ago, in protest of his failure to pass 12 individual appropriations bills. He and most of the Freedom Caucus have voted against funding bills that, without Democratic support, would have shut down the federal government. And during the reconciliation process, the Freedom Caucus advocated for, and secured, steep cuts to Medicaid.
In redder states, HFC members are eager to associate with that record.
“As the first elected official in the country to endorse President Trump, I will have his back and defend the MAGA agenda in the Senate, just like I have as a member of the Freedom Caucus in the House of Representatives,” Moore said in a statement announcing his Senate campaign.
Roy, too, leaned on much of the same rhetoric he’s known for espousing during regular floor speeches about the problems the country faces in his announcement.
“Texas is under assault — from open-border politicians, radical leftists and faceless foreign corporations that threaten our sovereignty, safety and our way of life,” Roy said in a statement. “It’s time to draw a line in the sand. As Attorney General, I will fight every single day for our God-given rights, for our families and for the future of Texas.”
While people like Roy may be legitimately interested in running for a statewide fix for Texas’ future, there are also plenty of reasons the HFC members are running from Congress.
Regardless of ideology, recent retirees of Congress told NOTUS earlier this year that they’re happier working away from Capitol Hill, even if they remained in the political world. A score of senators are pursuing runs for governor, calling the upper chamber “dysfunctional.”
From right to left, lawmakers have called the nasty partisan brawling and incremental fights for change draining and uninspired. Many have blamed the Freedom Caucus for exacerbating that problem.
In the end, it might be driving them away.
“I mean, the frustration that I think people feel inside and outside the caucus when they leave is they see the same thing I do, and that’s the uniparty — or whatever you want to call it — that is really powerful in D.C., and it’s a constant fight,” Biggs said.
“And I gave it my constant fight and will give it my constant fight, run through the tape til I’m done,” he said, “but the states are going to have to also join in the fight.”