Andy Biggs is trying to run for Arizona governor as a moderate. His own Goodreads account tells a different story: five-star reviews for books built around Great Replacement Theory, in a state where nearly a third of the population is Latino.
A Goodreads account appearing to belong to Republican gubernatorial nominee Rep. Andy Biggs left five-star reviews for two books that argue growing Muslim and Latin American populations threaten predominantly white Western societies, Axios first reported.
What Biggs Actually Reviewed
Among roughly 1,400 books logged, rated, and reviewed on the account since 2009, two stand out. The first is Mark Steyn’s 2006 book “America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It,” which argues that declining birth rates among white people, combined with Muslim immigration and population growth, would eventually eradicate Western society, particularly in Europe. Its back cover forecasts “Talibanic” book burnings in New York and a future U.S. Supreme Court endorsement of Sharia law. The progressive watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting has called the book “inarguably Islamophobic.”
Biggs, then a state legislator, logged the book in 2009, gave it five stars, and wrote: “I can’t really disagree with anything he says.”
The second is Ann Coulter’s 2015 book “¡Adios, America! The Left’s Plan to Turn our Country into a Third World Hellhole,” which some credit with helping shape Trump’s original 2016 anti-immigrant campaign platform. Coulter’s book warns of a similar demographic shift driven by Latin American immigration, and The Atlantic has described it as “packed with statements about ‘Latin American rape culture.’” Biggs gave this book five stars as well.
The Theory Underneath Both Books
Both books echo elements of Great Replacement Theory, a far-right conspiracy theory holding that there’s a coordinated plot to diminish the political influence of white people. It’s the same ideological framework that has motivated multiple mass shootings in recent years and has, since Trump’s rise, moved from the fringe into increasingly mainstream Republican rhetoric.
Biggs’s account also follows one appearing to belong to his daughter, Mylie, and remained fully public as of Tuesday afternoon, meaning these reviews weren’t hidden or difficult to find, just unnoticed until now.
The Political Stakes for Arizona Specifically
This isn’t landing in a state where the demographics are incidental. Nearly a third of Arizona’s population is Latino, and Biggs is seeking to unseat Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in a race where he’s actively trying to project a more moderate image after primary opponents, including fellow Rep. David Schweikert, already accused him of ties to white supremacists.
Five-star praise for a book warning about the dangers of exactly the population that makes up nearly a third of the electorate he’s asking to hire him doesn’t fit comfortably with the moderate image his campaign has been trying to build.
Biggs’s Campaign Won’t Say Whether It’s Even Him
Following Axios’s inquiry, the Biggs campaign neither confirmed nor denied that the Goodreads account belongs to him, and didn’t answer questions about the reviews or the books’ underlying arguments. That non-answer is notable on its own: if the account isn’t his, denying it would be simple. The campaign didn’t do that.
The Bottom Line
A Goodreads account that appears to belong to Arizona’s Republican nominee for governor gave top marks to two books built around the idea that immigration from Muslim and Latin American countries threatens to erase white Western society, one of which forecasts book burnings and Sharia law taking hold in America. Biggs is running in a state where nearly a third of residents are Latino, trying to sell voters on a moderate image his own reading history doesn’t support. His campaign won’t say whether the account is even his.