He Agreed With Her on Every Policy - Andy Biggs on John Giles, Katie Hobbs & Traditional vs Woke

Republican candidate for Arizona Governor, Congressman Andy Biggs joins Greg in a discussion on the difference between himself and his Latter-day Saint opponent, John Giles, who is the running mate to current Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs. There is a certain dynamic happening among Latter-day Saint voters. The Arizona Gubernatorial race epitomizes this dynamic. It is between the traditional-value Latter-day Saints and new woke Latter-day Saints.

 Raw Transcript:

taken positions that that kind of moved to the left. I would say he became woke, if I can put it that way. And when he
was announced, Greg, what he said is uh he was asked this question, is there any difference between you and Katie Hobbes
on policies? Is there anything you would disagree with? And he said he he agreed with her on every policy. You know, there is something very interesting
happening among Latter-day Saints and politics. There's this division. You've got the traditional values, family, uh,
small government growth type of usually conservative Latter-day Saint and then you've got this new faction that is growing quite a bit that goes over to
the woke side. Very different. It's a split and it's happening in several different places. Nowhere is it more prevalent, I believe, than here in
Arizona, where you have a traditional family value conservative Republican candidate, Andy Biggs, running for
governor against the Democratic Covet, who has chosen a former Republican mayor
uh in Arizona, a Latter-day Saint who was more traditional, but now seems to have moved very strongly over onto the
woke side and is running as the running mate. along with Katie Hobbes, the incumbent. And so this interview here is about Andy Biggs, and we're going to
talk about the differences between these two different stances and the positions that Congressman Andy Biggs has taken as a Republican candidate for governor.
It's a very interesting dynamic, and you've probably noticed it if you live especially in the Mountain West or even online, going online and seeing the
differences here where again there is a traditional side and then several are breaking toward the woke side. This is a
great example of that. I think you're going to enjoy this interview. This episode is brought to you by Go and Do Travel and the Gospel on the Nile cruise. Here you're going to learn more
about the temple than you will anywhere else outside of the temple itself. We're going to be cruising down the Nile visiting several different temples.
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Nile and I'll see you in Egypt. Here we go with Congressman Andy Biggs.
All
[music]
right, Congressman Governor Hobbs picked a fellow Latterday Saint and a fellow BYU grad from the East Valley, John Giles, a disaffected Republican.
Do you read that as a genuine olive branch that has been reached out or stretched out from from Governor Hobbes or is it a targeted play for a very specific religious constituency?
Uh it's extremely cynical quite frankly.
Um and here's the way you know is because I I've known John literally for decades and uh and we're very friendly
with each other. We're just very different politically and he left the Republican party actually quite some
time ago de facto if not doue. And the reality is uh she's trying to play for
about the 15 to 18% uh Republican vote that she believes she can get that's
that's uh not real conservative particularly, but it's much more um
much much more to the left of of uh the what I would call the norm of LDS voters. You know, there's a a strange
thing that seems to be happening in the East Valley where there is a uh a split to some degree of of of a
political I don't know. It it just has changed a lot in the last 10 years and and and Giles seems to be kind of right in the center of all this. I remember
talking to some business owners. They were concerned about bathrooms and some of the policies that he was putting forward for forward in in Mesa. Uh big
changes. What do you make of this transformation that he's right in the center of where he ends up running as a
a Republican mayor in Mesa and then ends up speaking at a Kla Harris rally and and now running with Katie Hobbs?
Well, it's it's just an oddity for me. I mean, cuz he did speak at at the Democrat National Convention, but she he
had also, you know, he he'd taken positions that that kind of moved to the left. I would say he became woke, if I
can put it that way. And when he was announced, Greg, what he said is uh he was asked this question, is there any
difference between you and Katie Hobbes on policies? Is there anything you would disagree with? and he said he he agreed
with her on every policy. Now, what that what that would really mean if that were true is that he supports boys and girls
sports and in the locker rooms. He supports transgender grooming. He supports uh unfettered unlimited
abortion. Uh I I mean you just you just go down this this list of social programs that Katie Hobbs is uh every
bit as left as say a Kathy Hokll or a Gavin Newsome. And so I I find it really
hard to believe that he is truly in lock step with her on all those. But but he said he was.
He said he was and he seems like he supported everything since she's was put in in 2022.
Uh what you you brought up abortion. Can you distinguish what your position is on abortion as compared to Hobbes and Giles?
Yeah, I mean my my entire professional life I mean Greg I actually uh represented pro pr pro-life
organizations at multilateral institutions in internationally. Uh I am
unabashedly unashamedly uh pro-life. Uh, and I I realize that Prop 139 passed. It
is the Constitution in Arizona. And and I remind people, uh, yeah, I am unabashedly pro-life. I I don't I don't
back away from that. But right now, we have a a constitutional provision. And what what's the first thing that the
governor does? He gets sworn in and uh says, "I will defend and protect this constitution." Well, until that
constitution changes, uh, and unless it were to change, um, I would be obligated to to be there, but it's not going to de
make me deviate from my principles on prolife, which I've always been.
Under a bigs administration, how would families benefit in Arizona as compared to under a Hobbs administration?
Well, there's a number of ways. So, let's just talk about economically under under Katie Hobbs, we've gone, Greg, from being one of the most affordable
states in the country to being one of the least affordable states in the country. I mean, and she's done such simple things as as uh forget or I don't
know if it was deliberate or inadvertent to uh request a waiver on the federal
imposed gas uh you know uh mandate on exotic blends of gases, which if she
would have done that on time, we would have save 50 cents per gallon just on gas. And people like me were pushing on it. So ultimately, she did. So you'll
have somebody who's there who's pushing on that. And also she could be facilitating the pipeline coming from
Texas to make sure that we get uh cheaper Texas gas as opposed to very expensive California gas. So you you get
that same thing on the water issue. She kind of fell asleep on the water issue in my opinion. And uh I I've been working with the federal government. Met
with Secretary Bergam uh uh last week and again uh this earlier this week. um and remind him every time I see him, he
knows he he knows he's going to hear this. Even if it's a casual meeting, I'm gonna say, "Man, we need you guys to help us out on water on the Colorado
River Basin." And and I've I've laid out a very uh I would say aggressive plan to fix that.
Uh and then she's done nothing with the groundwater. In fact, she she actually issued a moratorum on building houses,
driving up the cost of houses, Greg. So, she created this scarcity. So, uh, I I I guess what I would tell you is I have a
full plan on on whether it's affordability. So, we're going to make Arizona more affordable again. We've lost a 100,000 jobs. A 100,000 jobs in
the last year in Arizona. That's inexcusable. Uh, on education, our our attainment scores continue to go in the
tank. And she's attacking the wrong part of education. She's attacking uh uh educational freedom instead of attacking
and say well what we need to do is move set aside the unions and let's focus on the student the teacher and the parents
and uh she's tried to get parents out of education altogether where I'm going to make sure that parents actually have a
right to get in there and see what their kids do. So I mean there's a lot to do here. I mean we're not even talking about healthc care issues. We're not
talking about eliminating fraud and waste. We're not talking about trying to reduce taxes and streamline and reduce regulation to increase jobs. She's not doing any of that stuff. We're not.
She's not. Greg, a lot of people don't realize it. There out of 50 states, 48 states have a reduction in fentinel
overdose deaths. There's only two states where it's going up and one is slightly going up and one's spiking. Ours is the
state that's spiking. And uh part and parcel to that is she she defunded the border security strike force that was
put in place under Governor Dussy. And so uh she doesn't she gave she says she gave more money to DPS. Got some more
money there, but she won't let them cooperate with the feds in helping to control a border situation that is that
is really really good, the best in my lifetime, but still has some issues. All of those things are going to be addressed under a bigs administration.
So let's look again here at education and the role of the parent because this to me is a very I I believe a very hot issue that or or an important issue that has not been discussed enough.
It always seems to me that for the Democrats at least that they are looking to have state control these things that [clears throat] they can do a better job
than the parents can do. And so they're they're going to go over the head of the parents and get the communications from the school to the kids from from uh uh
the state control over the education etc. How exactly would that change with you? What how do the parents become more
involved in the decision-m and in involvement with their kids at school?
Well, first of all, um, she vetoed legislation that would have given parents access to curriculum and
to see what their kids are being taught, which which which seems to me as a as a father of six children, um, I I I really want to know what they're being taught.
As a grandfather, I want to know what my kids are being taught. She vetoed that legislation. But the other aspects to it
uh that are so important, Greg, are um we have school districts that that um are bringing stuff in that's
inappropriate. She's okay with this this transging stuff that is actually going on in some districts in Arizona. So So
I'm not okay with that. I I want parents to be involved to see that curriculum.
Uh she didn't she actually vetoed a bill that would have said parents have access to their kids their minor children's medical records. Greg, she vetoed that.
But then let's get back to the ESAs.
Let's talk about school choice and education, parental choice. Nothing is more uh is better for a child than to
have parents actively engaged in that child's education. So, you have a teacher that's teaching, you have parents that are involved, and that
typically translates into a child's uh educational attainment. That's what we want. Uh, but she's trying to actually
crush school choice. She wants to eliminate that so parents don't have that chance to either participate in
school choice or actually have access to their their kids' records in schools.
This is a problem. Um, and guess what's happened? correspondingly, our NAPE scores, our test scores are going down.
And so I I'll just give you another co couple of things real quick on education. Uh I I I we're going to we're
going to actually expand educational choice with ESAs because right now we say we have it but there are places
rural places there are um educationally uh not education but uh economically disadvantaged areas where these private
schools or charter schools aren't going into. If you fix the ESA uh uh uh a bit
uh you can provide the incentives for them to go in there. So even the economically disadvantaged family is going to have a chance to get better
education. Guess what that does? It stimulates the local district to improve as well. So I mean those those things
are important. But when you talk about Mississippi and you watch the transformation that happened there from being one of the worst to being one of
the best I called friends that I have in these other states that that that I've made over the years and I said, "What'd you guys do?" Here's what they did.
eliminate Common Core. People think Arizona eliminated Common Core. No, they didn't. I was there. I watched what happened. They actually just changed the
name of Common Core, but kept the basic structure of Common Core there. So, they eliminated Common Core. They said,
"We're going to go back to phonics-based education. We're going to go back to literature and literacy. And we're going
to go back to sciencebased math. No more of this uh CRT type of math stuff or DEI
type of math where it says how do you feel 2 plus two is well I feel it's purple. No, no, we're going to go into science-based math where two and two is
four and and uh the that's going to actually help get the scores up just like it has done in Mississippi. That is
that's the goal. Um, I mean there's more to talk about on education, but I mean those are things that that get parents in involved in education and help their
15 minuteskids get the best education they possibly can get.
Now, you brought up ESAs. There's about 100,000 kids, I think, now in Arizona that you are on the ESAs. What you've talked about this a little bit. What agency would be running this?
So there there right now um the the program is housed in the state treasurer's office and and that may be
the the correct agency. I don't know. I I suspect I would rather it probably either be a standalone. Uh I don't know
that you want to embed it in the the the Department of Education, but I think you'd want it maybe as a standalone. So you have about 100,000 on ESA. you have
uh an additional I think it's close to 200,000 in charter schools. So you have this tremendous amount of of people uh
that have made that choice for their children. And I think it it I I'm not I'm not convinced that the treasurer's
department no this is no reflection on any of the treasurers whether it's Jeff Dit or whether it's uh Kimberly Ye I love them. They're great people great
treasures actually done a great job. I'm just saying that I'm not sure that's where it needs to be housed. The second thing I'd say is uh probably you we want
to have another open bid process on the contractors that are helping manage ESA.
[clears throat]
Okay. Now, my next point is something very exciting to me because I've seen what's happened with this before, but you've talked about eliminating the
state income tax in Arizona. As an Arizona myself, that is very interesting to me. And the first thing people I think really think about is, well, great. I've got some extra money in my
pocket or you know I'm not covering this additional annual fee that I'm paying out to Arizona. But it's much bigger than that. I think if you look at the
president of Texas and Florida and what has happened there, the draw for business to go into those states
helps you to boom the economy and it provides more jobs, more higher paying jobs and and and more businesses around those jobs, the ancillary jobs etc.
How do you see this happening in Arizona? What would the differences be?
You've got about 31% of the budget from uh that is coming from the Arizona state
tax, which is roughly, I think, $900 million. How do you make up for that?
And how do you see that changing things in the future economically for the state of Arizona?
So, the state income tax is flat in Arizona at 2 and a.5%. It generates something around six to six half billion
dollars per year. That's important. You got to be able to you have to be able to eat back at that. We have in on our uh
Medicaid program alone roughly $2.8 billion dollars in uh fraud. Uh and that's not BS's numbers. That's that's
the current attorney general, the Democratic attorney general, the one who for who's declined prosecution of the of the of the governor. But let's leave that aside.
18 minutesYes. Yes, but she says there's $2.8 billion in in Medicaid fraud. Um, in dealing and working with other whistleblowers on
other areas of government. Um, the and talking to uh legislators who've actually been involved in the investigation, they tell me we could
have as much as seven to eight billion dollars of fraud annually in Arizona.
So, obviously, we're going to have to doge the heck out of the state, clean up the fraud, waste, and abuse. And if you
do that, um, you don't need as as much money, right? Uh, to because now you've eliminated some fraud, waste, and abuse.
But there are some other things that people forget that we have. Arizona is as a state with incredible, we've been
blessed by God with incredible uh, mineral resources. We have 26 um, critical minerals. And you know, when
you get to 20 and you're looking at the periodic table of elements, you're going to see the 20 and and we have almost all
of those 20 plus. And so you start doing uh you start facilitating the use of
those instead of the state putting up speed sticks and that increases economic activity and actually helps us uh uh
make more at the state as well. The other thing I would tell you is you have a dormant asset in the state trust lands. 8 and a half million acres of
state trust lands. The founders of this state intended to move that off of uh uh
uh government hands, get into private hands and it does a multiple of things if that happens. Number one, you create
space to build more homes um and business and welcome people and and that
lowers cost. Second thing is by doing that you increase the amount of money going into the state trust which is
designed to fund K12 education. And I will just tell you if we'd been selling 25,000 acres a year instead of two or
3,000 acres a year over the last just just the last 40 years, guess what? you would have one of the most well-funded
K12 education systems there is and have very little need for state income tax.
So we we can get there. It's it's going to be have to be kind of a a stepbystep ratchet down. But as we get there and if
we don't get there I I want to get to to your point, Greg, because you made this point. There are now, I think, uh, 12
states that are are looking to eliminate their income tax. And the reason that they're looking to eliminate their
income tax is because you we right next door to us. This is another fortuitous thing for us. You have one of the one of
the top five economies in the world and it's self- emilating. and you have a a a
bunch of crazy people in the California legislature that are literally driving their businesses out of the state. And if they're, you know, if they're more
liberal oriented, they're going to go to uh Austin, Texas. Okay. But if they're from Orange County and they're more conservative oriented, as we've seen some of them, welcome on over here to to Arizona.
That's that that's what reducing your taxes do. Right now, a lot of them are flying right over Arizona and landing in
Texas or Tennessee or Florida. And we, heaven help us, we lost one to or uh to
Ohio because of our governor's failures that of a thousand jobs. These are highpaying jobs coming in that uh we we
want our kids to be able to have those jobs. We want to have the American dream, Greg, and and uh have having access to great jobs is part of that.
Yeah, I to me this is a big issue. I I think it is a no-brainer. I I I I'm very happy that you're you're supporting this
22 minutesbecause I think it's a big change for our economy and and the more we can get out of that tax uh demand from the state, I think the more we're going to
bring in private business and pro produce jobs and increase the economy and and everything else. So, great issue. All right,
on the debate refusal. Okay, [laughter] Katie Hobbs does not want to debate.
Now, back in 2022 when she ran, she also didn't debate. She didn't want to debate. So, she's now trying to get in for eight years where where she has not
had to put herself out there, be scrutinized, have her opponent check her. Uh, and it gives you an opportunity, of course, to compare
yourself to what she's offering. You've called this self disqualifying for her and Giles. Um, what do you make of this?
I mean I I she doesn't want to even stand up on the stage with you.
It's even worse than that, Greg. But I I'll answer the first part first and then and get to this back. But so here's the way to think of it. I we h Americans
have a longstanding tradition of of candidates debating each other that probably the high point was the Lincoln
Douglas debates where they literally would go and they would draw thousands of people to watch uh in the backwoods of Illinois where these guys would
debate for three and four hours and and you know we're not asking her to debate me for three or four hours. We're asking ours
to sit down for an hour where she can ask me this stuff. I can ask her the this stuff about her record. We can
discuss it. Uh, you know, she's she's basically doing this, Greg. She's hiding out and she's refuses to to come forward
and and then the outside groups have spent 19 to20 million already on this campaign. And about 17 and a half of
that has been solely to trash me and say things that aren't true. So it it she's found it lowering the temperature, right?
Lowering the temperature.
Oh, yeah. She's lowering the temperature. [laughter] All right.
Exactly. And I'm like, wait a wait a second. You won't even get on the stage with me. I have to tell you this this story. What happened? Uh this may have
been two weeks ago now. Maybe it was just last week. Yeah, it had to be two weeks ago. uh we had uh what was buil as
a forum in front of the the various police organizations from around the state. 90 police officers there and I'm
like okay well it's a forum so that means there'll be a moderator on stage I'll be in one chair she'll be in another chair and we'll get asked the
questions we'll respond to the questions and and you have a little bit of a form a little back and forth
she would not get on the stage with me and so I thought well that's weird and so it was worse than that though Greg
they they made me in wait in my own little green room and then I went first. I had to walk
down my own hallway to the stage. I I got up and I did my presentation. I'd asked them, "Are you sure I got to
leave?" And they said, "Yes, you have to leave." Then they sent me back down my hallway into my green room. And then
then the governor emerges, walks down her hallway, goes up, gets on the stand.
Of course, she's been able to sit in the in the green room and watch live stream everything I said. And I find myself
going, "This wasn't a forum. This is terrible." And and I we just I got a notice today a group that normally does
a forum for guminatorial candidates has invited me to a political event. A political event. And I said, "Well, is
it a forum or isn't it?" And they said, "Well, it's not a forum really because Hobbs in, you know, you isn't even going to be there on the same day you're
there." I'm like, "What is this? What is this? She she she's hoping that she can slander me
26 minutesenough and never have to go out in public and be asked questions." And um you know, she says she's too busy. She's going around the state meeting people.
You know what? I'm all over the state meeting people. And somehow I think I could find time to sit down with her or
stand up with her on a stage and have a debate. And I'll just tell you, stay tuned, Greg. We're gonna release something next week I think will be kind of fun.
Fantastic. Look for it. All right, let's finish on this here. Um, under a bigs administration,
where do you see Arizona in four years from now? Where is it going to be? What are the the changes that you want to implement
as compared to HOBS? Where do you see Arizonans in four years?
Well, I I think we're back at one of the most affordable states in the country. I think that working with uh the administration with the contacts I have,
we see a pipeline coming in from Texas bringing in uh oil and gas. I I think that that we're going to see um
infrastructure being constructed and put in place to make use of the nearly 700 million acre feet of water we have
stored underground that just needs to be cleaned up and distributed which by the way is about a 250ear supply plus we'll
continue to to bolster that. That means that our economy is going to cut loose.
It's going to go great guns. It means that it means that your uh young adult children, my young adult children and
them th those coming up, they can be able to afford to buy a single family home, which puts them on the ladder of
the American dream and actually allows them to dream big dreams, hope big hopes, and be participants in the community. We're going to be safer
because uh I'll be working with the police uh and at every level and we're going to make sure that we've got our
the last parts of our border secure uh so that we're not the we're not the only corridors left for for human and drug
trafficking. Uh you're going to see prosperity come as well. We're going to improve the education system and we're
going to we're going to we have to take care of some other infrastructure. But the other the most important thing after four years you're going to see Arizona
restored to the to the Arizona I know as a as a a lifelong resident of Arizona born and raised here is that we will
have uh every opportunity for every one of our citizens to fulfill the measure of God's creation for him. And I I I
know that sounds Edenesque or maybe idealistic but I really see uh and I think people have have started to
realize this. I hope they have that government is so big today that policym is integral to your quality of life. I
want to shrink our government and let you make those choices. And uh uh you know, Greg, I I just see great days
29 minutesahead. Uh I I think Katie, there's no there's probably no two more disparit uh political figures in the country than
Katie Hobbs and me right now on these things. And I'm willing to go out there and have the debate. be transparent by oh by the way we don't know how much
money the that our state gets from the feds we can extrapolate and guess but we don't know so when you said said said
it's about 31% here's the deal we know what the general fund spend is because that's basically Arizona taxpayers doing
with a few well uh recognized federal programs but we know that the the federal government's giving our state money and uh I will be transparent about
that so you can see how much money we're getting from the federal government and where it's going so we can hold people accountable. And so what I'm saying is a
more open and transparent government with less corruption.
Fantastic. Well, Andy, Congressman, appreciate your time on this and I appreciate your stances all the way from the uh the the the Congress to the state
Congress to the state senate to DC and and [music] hopefully now in uh in a larger role in Arizona. Appreciate you.
Thanks, Greg. I'll send you my copy of my book, The Doctrine of Liberty. You need to You might be interested in that book.
Yeah. Thanks, man.