Andy Biggs

Guiding conversations with community leaders.

In this podcast, we'll explore the human journey of leaders, their stories of humility, triumph, roadblocks and lessons learned. Come join us as we journey together and uncover the questions you've always wanted to know. This podcast is brought to you by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce, perhaps providing resources, connections and belonging for business professionals.

And Rocket Space, an event and meeting venue in the heart of the East Valley with a full service four person podcast studio. What a treat we have today.

Sarah, I absolutely agree. We are in special company today.

Yes, we are. Today's guest is Andy Biggs. He's an attorney, married to his wife Cindy for 40 years, father to six children and grandfather to eight. He served as an electric office for 20 years, first as a state representative, then a state Senator, and from 2012 to 2016 he served as Arizona Senate president. We are honored to have Andy with us today and we're so excited to get into our conversation with you.

Thank you. Glad to have me. Glad to be with you, actually. It's really nice. It's really nice.

So we are going to kick things off with what we like to call rapid fire. Rapid fire round. First question, phone call or text message?

Depends on who's calling. Text message is probably the best way.

Favorite superhero?

Yep. Oh, gosh. As a kid it was Batman.

Yes. There you go.

I thought you were gonna say Kate. That's okay. Dine in or delivery?

Dine in.

Your hobby of choice.

Music. Okay.

A day with your best friend or party with everyone you know.

Best friend.

What song do you sing on karaoke night?

Right now I'd probably sit, sing Litz. My own worst enemy.

Okay.

Most annoying sound in the world. Oh, can't be a person. It has to be a sound.

Yeah, I was thinking a lot of people lead the family out of this. Probably nails on a any chalkboard. Really bad. Really bad.

Safari or cruise?

Cruise one day with any person, living or not. Who would it be?

My wife.

Okay, last question here. Glass half full or half empty?

Right now it's probably half empty, but usually it's half full.

Okay, well, we have a goal then. By the end of this, we caught.

Him on a good day, I guess. Thank you to Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport for their support.

With non stop service to 60 plus cities, Gateway Airport makes traveling just plain easy.

Visit GatewayAirport.com for more information. All right, well, we're glad you're here. What we want to talk about today is just your journey that you've been on, how you've kind of gotten to where you are, but all really the people that have involved in that. So take us back. Take us back to the beginning, your. Your younger years, when you started your education and things like that. What were those influences on you to get you through those times in your life?

Well, I had a good church leader who was an attorney, and I thought maybe be an attorney. I really wanted to be a rock star is really what I wanted to be.

And you can still be that, you know.

Oh, yeah. I mean, if Mick Jagger's 78, right? I mean, he's out there. But I thought, if I'm going to have to really work, I would like kind of be like that guy. You can help people and you can make a decent living and that type of thing. Okay.

Okay. And so then did you have. He was your influence then that kind of got you into that space?

Well, when the end came, it was, yeah, yeah, he was the guy. I mean, I looked up to him a lot. Okay. But let's be honest. My major was Asian studies. And I knew that I had three choices. Well, four choices. I could go out and work, or I could get a PhD in Japanese, which I speak, or I could go to law school or get an mba. I did by far the best on the lsat. I thought of this guy, what an influence he had been in my life as a kid, and I said, I think I'm going to be a lawyer.

Going to go that route.

Okay, so you served a church mission in Japan, and something people may not know is that you are fluent in Japanese.

I was pretty good. Pretty fluent. I don't know that any outsider is ever fluent in Japanese, but I was pretty good. And now it takes. It takes a good week or two in the country to get it back.

Share with us something else. What are other assumptions about you that maybe people get right and what are some things that maybe they get wrong?

I think people think I'm a compassionless, heartless kind of guy, and that's just not true. I'm a sympathetic crier. If you put Bambi on, I'll probably cry with you at the end. And the other is, I really don't like the limelight. I would really prefer just sitting at home playing guitar, keyboards or reading, be with my family, that type of thing.

How often do you get to play in that band that you talk about here? Do you get to do that much?

Not near enough. We put a show on pre Covid. We did a couple shows a year. And so we would everybody have to practice on your own. And then we, because we're all coming from around the country and we get in there and just ram and cram and jam for about three and a half evenings and then put the show on. And it is a, it's a blast. It's just so fun.

Well, good, because I'm looking for a fundraiser for the Chamber, so I know who we're booking for entertainment. That's awesome.

That'd be fun. That would be fun.

So, misperceptions. She was kind of hitting on that. What are some of the things that people have, like, other than that we just talked about, what are other things that people kind of have about you that they don't know that is the real Andy?

Well, I mean, I'm much more comfortable just, just being with one on one people. I mean, I enjoy being with people in a, in a big setting. I mean, that's really fun. But part of my job is to get out and meet people one on one. And that is just. That's the best. That really is the best.

Would you say that's what keeps you fighting the fight and going each day?

Sometimes depends on who those individuals are. I mean, I'm getting the opportunity to meet, but I mean, trying to do what you think is right and having conversations with regular people who, telling you what's going on in their lives, that's, that's, that really keeps you in the, in the game.

So as you're. I'm going back again to the history of schools and your journey there. Who, when you were going through law school, what was that journey like for you? Like, I know it changes everybody's really. It changes your whole life outlook when you go through that journey of school. Because you're learning more than just education, right? You're learning how to live a life. What was yours like?

Well, so I was, I got things backward, you know, so undergraduate. So a lot of, a lot of kids in my faith, they go up to byu, find their spouse and get married and then go on. We got married before I went up to byu and then when we were in law school, we had a child. And so my law school experience was different than most of my compatriots. I mean, there was a group of us that were married and some haven. Had kids as well, and we kind of got to know each other pretty well. But I would go in and go to go to class and then I worked as well. But then I would, as soon as I could, I would go home so I could take care of, of our child, change those diapers, change the diapers. Oh, yeah. And my. And my wife would. Then she was working as a dental assistant. She was working for a dentist who did a lot of evening work, so. Which was perfect for us because I would be studying, taking care of our son while she was at the. At the dentist.

You have six children?

Six kids, yeah.

How many boys? How many girls?

Two boys. Four girls.

And you're pretty good at hair then, huh?

No. Someone said to me the other day, you know, I want to say your wife really did a great job raising the kids. And I said, she did? Yeah. No, I. You. You. You would get one pony. I could probably do a ponytail. Yeah, but that would be it.

Well, maybe you should have competition. He has nine children.

Oh, wow. Holy moly.

Six girls. So I'm actually getting pretty good at hair.

Oh, wow.

We got that French braid down pretty well now.

Oh, there. There was no way I could do the French braid. I have the older girls do the French braid on the younger girls. That would be it.

So talk about your children, then. As far as that life of school and growing up with them, how were you able to keep in touch, influencing them in your lives as you had all this busy going on in your life with work? Right?

Yeah. So I think we probably had all six kids at some point while I was working, and I was working probably 60, 80 hours a week. And so what we do is I made sure that there was a. We had a date night every week with one kid or the other. So every kid, once a month would get a date night. And it was. It was real simple. I mean, we'd go to talk, you know, Taco Bell or Jack in the Box, you know, something like that.

Well, it really didn't matter what it was. It was just the time, right?

That's right. Yeah. So a lot of fun. And then. And then as things kind of. As I got older, I was able to coach some of my younger girls. But when my oldest son was. He was a wrestler, and we. We would go on weekends all over the state, and he'd be wrestling and stuff all day.

Wrestling tournaments.

That's right. It was a lot of fun, you know, that's how. That's how we. We managed to stay close together. And then you always had to be able to take a little trip at least once a year as a family.

Family vacation. So what about the wife? You were able to keep a date night with her?

Date night? Date night every Friday night.

There you go.

And when we were poor, it was slim pickings, but, man, I remember Looking for the coupon for that. Two steak dinners for $7.95 shoe leather deluxe. I can tell you that it was.

Good sometimes just to walk around the park is all you need to do. Get the air.

That's right, that's right, that's right.

So then you're practicing law and something inspires you to run for office. So ran in 2002. I would like you to go back for a minute. You, you win the election, what is your first day in office like?

So my first day in office, when we get sworn in, it's just everybody's there. The House is there, the Senate's there, spouses are there, parents are there, kids are upstairs in your office. My parents are upstairs in the office. You have every member of the Supreme Court, state supreme Court, you have the Secretary of State. All of those folks you've got. Who else you got? I mean, just everybody that's there in state government. And the governor gets up and it was Janet Napolitano and she gave basically because I think she got. Was she in already? I can't remember, but she gave her address, you know, and it is just a cacophony of confusion and it's a lot of fun. It gets hot because everybody's there and you're crammed in. And then when it's over, it's like, what just happened? Yeah, what just happened? What just happened. And the old saying goes is, is you say to yourself, you're looking around, you're saying, how in the world did I get here? And then about three weeks later, you're saying, how in the world did these folks get here? So that's kind of the way that works.

Yeah, but what was it that got, I mean, obviously election, but what sparked you to want to do that?

Well, so if you want to go back into history just a little bit. My parents had been grassroots activists. My wife's parents had been grassroots activists. And my car would be parked along the side of the house. There was no place for it in a garage or anything. And it'd be on the street. And so every time my mom would engage, what would happen is my car would get vandalized. I mean, swear words on the side and broken out windows, stolen batteries, all whatever, you know. And so when my wife and I decided to get married, I said, well, we could never, ever get involved in politics. Just not going to do it because politics is just so ugly. It's vicious and we just don't want to. I don't want to have any part of that. And I thought she agreed. She says now that she doesn't remember ever agreeing to that, but I thought she did. And then we finish undergrad, law school, go to work, and we moved into Gilbert, 1986. And about a month or two after we're in, there's a guy who lives the next street over. He calls me up one night and says, hey, you want to go to. It was then, it was Legislative District 30. He says, Want to go to this meeting? And I said, well, you know, not really. And he said, no, come on, it'll be fun. So we went and it was a kick in the pants, because what happened is it was a very. It was the biggest district in the state at the time. It was very divided. So one half would sit over here and the other half across the aisle, and then they would take turns, very orderly, getting up and tell the other half what was wrong. Yeah. What they thought. And it was back and forth. And we said, oh, this is. This is good. There was no reality TV on the time, if you recall this. Is that how long ago that was? And so he called me up a few weeks later, hey, you want to go again? Sure, we'll go. Before you knew it, we were involved. And then by the time 2002 comes around, we'd both been. This guy and I had been very involved. And there was redistricting, and so our state representative had been redistricted out, and everybody thought she would just move into the new district. And she called me up and said, I'm not going to move in. Would you run? And so, you know, we thought about it, prayed about it, and said, well, let's give it a whirl and see what happens.

There you are.

Yeah. So that's how we got there.

That's interesting. Yeah.

Luck would have it, or bad luck or good luck. I don't know what you'd call it.

So how did you get your wife involved in that, then? How did you get her approval on that? Because you said she doesn't remember either way. But that's a big decision. You have to, as a family, come to that conclusion, Right?

Yeah, she's always been in on politics stuff. I mean, even while I was doing. Doing my running around. So I'd been. I was doing international law at the time. She, you know, she just followed politics. Very interested. And when I said, you know, I've been asked. And she said, I think you should. I really think you should. And I said, really? Okay, well, we'll think about it. And sure enough, she's Been incredibly supportive the entire time.

So you served the state for many years and then you take a run for U.S. senate. How does that come about?

Well, so what happened there is. I'll just tell you the story. So I had a daughter working for Congressman Sam and Matt Salmon. And I had known Matt Salmon for a lot of time. Long time, in fact. We didn't know how long we'd known each other, actually, because we had met as young men dating twin sisters whom we didn't know each other. I didn't know who he was, he didn't know who I was. But we found this out much later. Anyway, so what happened is he calls up one Friday night while we're on date night, and I said, oh, I better take this call from Matt. And so he says, hey, can you come see me? And I said, sure. And the next morning he says, I'm going to be retiring. Look, every morning the president and his team kick me in the teeth. Every afternoon, our own leadership kicks me in the teeth. And every night I have to sleep on a blowout mattress in my office. And then he leans forward and he says, I'd like you to run to take my place. And I said, well, if you put.

It that way, yeah.

I said, you're a salesman. So I really struggled with that because I had, you know, I had developed. I decided it was getting near the end of being in the state, and it was. We had other things that we were looking for as a family and me. And so it was very difficult decision to make. And then we felt that, that I should run at some point, not too long after that, and maybe maybe five, six days after that, after a lot of thought and anguish. And so that's how we got there. That's how we started running. That's how my wife and I jumped in together.

I'm really curious about that process, what you just mentioned, and that we came to the conclusion, what is going through your mind? What are the weight? What are the scales of measure as you're going through that to decide that you would do it or not do it? Because my mind's thinking, what's the weight of that? What's that like? Share with that a bit.

So our decision making process is. First of all, I went home actually physically sick that he had asked me to do this. And I'm thinking, oh my gosh, you know, to be honest with you, I told my wife, well, I'll serve one more term in the state Senate, then we'll build the pool in the backyard. I like to write books. I'm going to continue to write books that nobody buys, but I'm going to write these books and do that. That's what I'll do. And so I'm like, wow, man, what are we going to do? So we both start, well, this, this would be good if we did it. This would be bad if we did it. This would be good if we stuck with our original plan. This would be bad. And so you go through that, we pray a whole lot and we actually talk to the kids and said, you know, it's going to affect you guys, you know, we want your input. And so they all, they all gave input.

Yeah, that's where I was going to go next is how does this impact your family like from the first run to the second run? I mean, that changes the lens for everybody, right?

Yeah. So, Right. The state being in the state legislature, it's a part time legislature and I was the president. So my goal was to get us out as quick as possible every year. And we did. And then I would have the rest of the year and I would, I would work down there just two days a week and then I would do other projects. And, and so the family was not really overly affected by that too much. But we knew that go. The campaign is just unbelievable. It's the hardest thing ever did was campaign. So we needed to talk to the kids. Now I had a daughter who was not grown yet, so she was still in high school. And then another daughter that was just leaving high school. I guess that's not right. Maybe she was already her first year in college trying to pin that back because she had done her college out of state. So anyway, six kids does that to you. Yeah, that's right. They all, yeah, I know where they all went. I know their birthdays, you're lucky if.

You remember their names.

But so they were great. I mean, they all said, look, we think you should do it. And I happened to have, I had a number of kids, you know, that were working back east. A couple of kids had gone to school back east and then I had some other kids out here. And so they were grown mostly. And so it was real easy for them to say, well, you know, that's great, we'll continue living our lives and we'll do all we can to help. And so they jumped in wherever they could.

Okay, that makes sense. So they were mostly dispersed already around.

The country with their own things.

And so. Okay, so I can only imagine if they were all at home, how much that would change their lives. And your family lives if you were still going through the school motions, right?

Oh, yeah, if they were. I, I don't know. I. I know people who have little kids who, who do this. I don't know how you do it, because I'm on the road, you know, in D.C. a lot, and I think maybe two or three weeks this year, I haven't been in at least one flight out of the state and back, and there's, there's weekends that you never get home. And, and you're all over the country campaigning or for somebody else or helping somebody else, or sometimes you're investigating issues that you have to investigate. And so it's, it's really a, it's a family game changer, in my opinion.

Yeah.

So certainly many of us have a preconceived idea of what it's like to work in Washington, and maybe we.

It's glamor, I'm telling you. It's all glamour.

Very few of us have actually walked in those shoes. What is the reality of that?

Well, it isn't. It is not glamorous, I can tell you that. I mean, there's times that you're eating a Quick Mart convenience, let's put this, a convenience store hot dog that may have been on there six weeks on the, on the Roller. And then, and then you're going to go get a speech and, and that hot dog starts affecting you. Just, just. I just, I just want to give you some. A sense of reality. And so, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's good because you get to try to advocate for the principles you believe in and what you think your constituents, what you've promised your constituents. It's difficult because there's probably never been. There's probably only one other time in American history that you've had the acrimony that we have today, and that was in 1860. But the acrimony is pretty debilitating. It really causes a lot of problems. But on the other hand, we do make friends with people. That would be shock. People say, I'm surprised you're a friend with that person or whatnot. But that's good. It's a 247 job. It never goes away. I mean, there's no way. I mean, if you go on and, and my staff would tell you, if I go on vacation, which hasn't been for. For well over two years now, but if I did, we were still in contact all day long. And it's very, very different. Yeah. It never stops.

Yeah. So You're a man of faith, and I know you pull from that. You've got to. Because my question here is where do you find your sanity and all that then? Like, where do you find your strength?

No, it's faith and family. Yeah.

Are there any other sources, though, as far as mentors or just relationships that you have that you lean into for those kind of things? Beyond those two?

Yeah. I mean, I mean, you got good friends. I. I mean, my guys that I ran in Arizona with for years, really good friends. Eddie, Eddie Farnsworth and there Bashore, good friends. Warren Peterson, you know, Travis and, you know, so all of those people that we associated with, really good friends. And then, then people I went to law school with and stuff that we still contact, stay in contact with. And, you know, family is the most important thing, though, really, is.

Sounds like it's most. Like most businesses, you kind of commiserate with those that are in the same field with you because they all understand the same weights that you're under.

They can relate to you.

Right.

Yeah. So, I mean, so I'm in the free.

Okay.

I wasn't going to mention anything, but I'm in the Freedom Caucus and that really is helpful because for the most part, although we have very strong and passionate feelings and we disagree at times and it's like a donnybrook, but we're really close.

Well, I'm glad you brought it up because I wanted to talk a little bit about Freedom Caucus and just a better understanding of what the purpose is behind the leadership in that.

Okay. So the leadership in that. So let me tell you why Freedom Caucus came together. There was this feeling that sometimes the. The leadership of our. Of our conference with the Republican Conference that they did not really stick to what we promised we would do. So these guys got together and they formulated, formed the Freedom Caucus. And the theme is we will give voice to the people who feel otherwise voiceless in Washington, D.C. so that's it.

That's a lot of people.

Well, it's almost everybody I know. And of course, we keep it consistent with the principles and values we have. I mean, there are people on the other side that have a different view of the world. But we also believe that if you make promises, you should try to keep those promises. And that's really what we try to do and remind each other that we made this promise here. We need to keep that promise.

Yeah, I know you have six kids and eight grandkids, and I have conversations every day. I have two kids as well, and I look at our Kids. And I don't know what to tell them right now. What do you tell your grandkids?

I tell them a whole lot of things, actually. But I try to keep them focused on, I think, eternal principles. Not, you know, not transitory, ephemeral things, I guess. Yeah.

So looking forward now, what does the next five, ten years look like for you? When you think about the future, where does life take you next? Do you have any ideas, any aspirations?

Well, no. No aspirations other than to maybe get reelected one more time at least.

Okay. So continuing the journey.

Good. Yeah. You have to keep fighting the fight and try. And I do think that, you know, I do tell my kids this, too. We are at an existential crossroads in the country. We need to determine what we. What it is we believe in and find out what it. Recall what has worked so well for us, and that's where we're going to be.

So don't bury the lead. I appreciate this. As a journalism major, I can appreciate that. What does that mean to you?

Say what's most important first, and then you can go ahead and make your argument about it. So you must have been talking to Kate, because I tell my staff all the time, don't bury the lead. And they'll draft a letter. I say, we need to do a letter about such and such. They'll send a letter and you'll read it. And there's all these great arguments. And then at the bottom. So we ask you to please do this. No, no, right at the top. Please do this. We want, you know, the action items on top, most important.

And you bring up Kate.

Yeah. My chief of staff, who's sitting here, and Cindy signals to me like, cut it. Ixnay on that.

I haven't seen any of those signals. What are you talking about?

But it's a good example. Kate is someone that I do get to work with through the chamber and some of the work that we do. And you are surrounded by an exceptional team who help you to further your goals in Washington.

Yeah, 100%. We've got. Oh, she wants me to roll on now. This is the one. She's saying expand, expand. Now we really do have a great team, both here and there. We've got the district office that deals with constituent issues. And then we've got the. The policy shop in D.C. and the comm shot in D.C. and the reason I think I became HFC chairman is because the. Basically, I forgot to step back when they asked for volunteers, you know, step forward. But the reality is I have a team that is A credible breadth. Yeah, incredible breadth. Wide, you know, a bandwidth. And they'll tell you, I'm interested in everything. Everything.

Okay, so my last question for you then is this.

Hallelujah.

Don't bury the okay. What advice then? Giving people action. What advice do you have for those that are looking to get into this business that you're in?

I think you need to be humble and get active. I mean, I talk to a lot of people who say to me, out of the blue, they'll say, hey, I'm thinking about running for Congress. Okay, great. What have you done? How have you been involved in the community? Who do you know? What have you done to make your community better? Why do you want to start in Congress? Have you thought about just being involved around and volunteering and learning the ropes? And a lot of people, I think it's because they think it's easy. They think it's prestigious. They think they can make a difference. I'm not going to say they don't think they can make a difference, but I just think sometimes that if you want to get involved and you want to get involved in politics, you need to start studying the issues. I mean, I always want to say, well, what do you know about, I don't know, the federal budget? What do you know about the border issues? Or what do you think our top three issues are right now? And come to understand what those issues are. So if you think those are your top three issues, make sure that nobody knows more about those. Than you.

So, okay, so lots of education, right? Read up, learn.

Right?

Well, it is always an honor to have a minute of your time. Thank you for spending it with us today and thank you allowing the opportunity.

You've cheered my day up and now I'm looking at it as a half full day.

Mission accomplished.

There you go. There you go.

We'll see how long it lasts. But we tried about to the first.

Phone call out here.

We're honored you're here. Thank you for being with us.

Thank you. Thanks for what you do in the community. Appreciate it very much.

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