On Thursday, former Republican representative Justin Amash from Michigan announced that he was leaving the Republican Party. This comes just a few short weeks after Amash came out as the only Republican to state he believed Trump should be impreached.
Amash had faced intense criticism from Republicans and Trump in the weeks since he advocated for impeachment. Amash made his announcement in a Washington Post Op-ed piece that appears to be more of a political stunt than truly expressing his beliefs.
His departure from the Republican Party was celebrated by Trump ahead of the Salute to America event.
Trumps statements are true as Amash was going to face an intense reelection campaign. Amash won reelection by 35,000 votes in a district that has not elected a Democrat as representative since 1990. In fact, prior to Amash being in Congress, Republican representatives have never won less than 61.3% of the vote in Michigan’s third district. Amash has never carried more than 60% since being elected.
There are some now calling for Amash to run for President in 2020 as a Libertarian. Many expect he would easily win a Libertarian nomination and many have considered an Amash ticket including Tulsi Gabbard, current Democrat candidate, could be a successful ticket.
Running for President in 2020 would just check another box in Amash’s list of failures. Not only would he fail to be elected as President, he would most likely fail in his attempt to prevent another term for President Trump. Amash has proven he cannot pull a strong Republican vote and has voted against Republican policies in the past, specifically Paul Ryan’s budget.
Pulling in Tulsi Gabbard would continue to further push his voter pool into he Democratic side of the house. While he may successfully flip a few young Libertarian voters, as the above article suggests, he will most likely cater more to the middle of the road Democrats, who are the voters that the radical Democrat candidates need in order to beat Trump.
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