Rep. Andy Biggs is expected to coast to victory in Arizona’s Republican gubernatorial primary Tuesday, but a decade-old legislative episode involving a polygamist sect accused of child sexual abuse is resurfacing as a potential liability heading into the general election.
In 2013, as Arizona officials pushed to strip authority from the Colorado City Marshal’s Office — a police force accused of acting as an enforcement arm for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) — a bill designed to do so passed the state House overwhelmingly but died in the Senate, reported the Washington Post.
Biggs, then Senate president, was blamed by the bill’s Republican sponsor, former lawmaker Michelle Ugenti-Rita, for blocking its advancement.
The FLDS sect, which split from the Mormon Church over polygamy, came under intense scrutiny in the 2000s after its leader, Warren Jeffs, was convicted of sexually assaulting two underage girls he had forced into marriage.
The Justice Department later sued the towns of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, alleging their shared marshal’s office selectively enforced the law and served FLDS leadership rather than the public, including efforts to return a fleeing child bride to the group.
Buster Johnson, a longtime Republican county supervisor in the area, said he voted against Biggs in the primary, saying he’d prefer a candidate who prioritized protecting women and children over religious deference. He was noncommittal about supporting Biggs in November.
A Biggs campaign adviser defended the congressman, saying he addressed flaws in what was “poorly-written legislation” opposed by state police groups, and pointed to Biggs’s record supporting child-safety funding and anti-exploitation efforts.
The campaign also sought to redirect scrutiny toward Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, citing rising overdose deaths and criticism of the state’s child welfare agency; Hobbs’s team countered by touting her law enforcement investments.
Political observers say the episode illustrates a broader challenge for Biggs, a former House Freedom Caucus chairman, as he tries to broaden his appeal beyond his safely conservative congressional district.
“What are you willing to do to show people you’re not still just this Freedom Caucus Republican who’s all fire and brimstone about how much libertarians hate government?” said longtime political consultant Chuck Coughlin. “That’s going to be his challenge this cycle.”
Federal intervention eventually forced changes at the marshal’s office, with a judge ordering a decade of oversight in 2017 — a resolution critics say came years too late.
One rival Republican candidate has already invoked the episode in campaign messaging, though the primary has largely centered on affordability and electability rather than the decades-old controversy, but Biggs, backed by President Donald Trump, remains heavily favored to win Tuesday’s nomination.
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