This granddaughter of Ukrainian refugees wants to oust Rep. Andy Biggs

To Rep. Andy Biggs, Ukraine's effort to fend off Russia’s invasion is a remote cause and a drain on public spending.

To Katrina Schaffner, a Democrat and Ukrainian activist running against Biggs, R-Ariz., in Arizona’s 5th Congressional District, the matter is personal.

Schaffner’s ancestors are from Sanok, a town in the historically Ukrainian-Polish borderlands now in southeastern Poland.

All four of her grandparents were enslaved in forced labor camps in Nazi Germany. 

After they were liberated, they found their way to displaced person camps in Germany, then moved to the United States, where they built a life in Chicago, Schaffner said.

She remembers her paternal grandfather as a gentle, kind man, and her paternal grandmother the “firm hand” running the household and doting on her husband.

Schaffner, a 38-year-old Mesa resident, said it troubles her to consider what her grandparents, now dead, would think of the war and some lawmakers’ willingness to cede Ukrainian territory to Russia.

“They’d be heartbroken,” she said in an interview on the Arizona Capitol lawn, taking a break from a Democrat-led abortion protest nearby. “They would be devastated watching their home, their loved ones, be attacked, again.” 

That Biggs, 55, will win a fifth U.S. House term is widely considered a foregone conclusion. Unseating an incumbent is rare, and the East Valley-area district Biggs represents leans Republican by 11 points.

But with her candidacy, Schaffner is arguing that Biggs’ opposition to supporting Ukraine is not just misguided but unpopular.

“He’s using this MAGA Republican agenda to advance him politically, within his own wing of the party,” she said. “What he doesn’t realize, though, is that this kind of rhetoric … is actually pulling people further away from the Republican party.”

According to paperwork from elections officials, Schaffner is the only Democratic candidate running to represent Arizona's 5th Congressional District, which includes parts of Gilbert, Chandler, Queen Creek and Apache Junction.

Public opinion appears to have shifted overall towards Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion in 2022, but strategic questions about the effort abound.

Ukraine has defended itself better than many analysts predicted, but it is now struggling to beat back Russia’s advances into its eastern region.

President Joe Biden’s administration is reportedly adjusting for a bleaker outlook. Contrary to its public statements, the Biden administration is shifting its strategy towards a negotiated end to the conflict, which would likely involve ceding parts of Ukraine to Russia, Politico has reported.

Ukraine has become one of the top recipients of U.S. military aid since the invasion. In mid-April, the House approved an additional round of foreign aid for the country, over the objections of Biggs and some other GOP lawmakers.

Aides to Biggs did not respond to a request for comment. But Biggs, who has served in Congress since 2017, has made his stance on the issue clear: He believes the conflict shows how the United States puts global interests ahead of its own citizens. 

Biggs and his like-minded colleagues have argued that sending aid to Ukraine comes at the expense of addressing immigration, a central pillar of his political platform, though he came out against the recent Senate-brokered border deal that marked one of the most comprehensive immigration-and-border-reform efforts in recent years. 

After Congress renewed funding for Ukraine in April, Biggs wrote that his colleagues "chose to secure the borders of foreign nations while leaving ours unprotected."

“The DC Cartel cares more about Ukraine than you,” he wrote.

Ukraine advocates counter that defending the country is in the best interest of the United States and its allies. Fears run high among some Western international leaders that if Ukraine falls, Russian President Vladimir Putin will target other countries in the region, pulling the world into wider regional conflict. 

Some of Putin’s allies have suggested that is a possibility, but Putin himself has dismissed the prospect as “sheer nonsense.” 

Schaffner cited Ukraine’s decision in the early 1990s to denuclearize, in exchange for assurances from Russia, the U.S., and the U.K. that they would respect its existing borders.

"We made them give up their nuclear weapons, and this is the result of that. The least we can do is give them the weapons that they need to win this war," she said.

And she charges that the more isolationist foreign policy stance of Biggs and others is a liability for the U.S., creating division that countries looking to undermine the U.S.’ position can exploit.

“We are too divided in this country to support our allies,” Schaffner said.

Involved in the efforts to undermine the 2020 presidential election, Biggs is among the House's most conservative lawmakers and has been tied to extremist groups. Earlier this year he spoke at an event hosted by Arizona’s chapter of the Proud Boys and a student group that has promoted anti-Jewish materials.

Politico has reported that allies of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., made inquiries about challenging Biggs’ reelection, in response to his vote last year to oust McCarthy from his leadership position. No challenge materialized: Biggs is running unopposed for the Republican nomination.

Laura Gersony covers national politics for the Arizona Republic. Contact her atlgersony@gannett.com or 480-372-0389.