Andy Biggs Receives High Ranking for His “Nay” Votes as a Member of the US House

What constitutes a good legislator varies from person to person. For leftists, it’s an elected official who is able to pass large numbers of bills that expand the size of the state and other bills that satisfy the desires of various grievance groups.

By contrast, for liberty conservatives, a good elected official is one that votes against bad legislation and only votes for legislation that rolls back the state and enhances individual freedom and localism. 

Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs is an elected official who upholds the latter standard. The Washington Post highlighted this in an article published on April 6, 2022 titled “The House Republican ‘no’ caucus is at it again.” This article was written in response to 63 Republicans voting against a resolution in support of NATO on April 5. 

Biggs was glad that he was featured in this article. He tweeted on April 8, “This is the ‘Republican Nay Caucus’ and I’m honored to receive this high ranking. It’s time to drain the swamp, challenge the radical Left, and not always blindly say ‘yea’ to everything.”

 

Biggs was ranked in third place for his number of “nay” votes, at 85. Texas Congressman Chip Roy (93) and Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie (99) had more “nay” votes. Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene was right behind Biggs with 79 “nay” votes. 

This is a standard that most liberty conservatives should aspire to. Most legislation elected officials put forward Congress is very bad, thus must be voted against. Obviously, liberty conservative officials will need to go on offense by introducing legislation that defunds government agencies and even abolish them. But in the meantime, there’s something to be said about voting against bad legislation.