Buzz grows Rep. Amash will challenge Trump as a Libertarian

Source: The Hill | May 21, 2019 | Jonathan Easley

There is growing buzz that Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) will leave the Republican Party to mount a challenge against President Trump as the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate.

Amash, a former attorney who was first elected to Congress during the 2010 Tea Party wave, has thrust himself into the spotlight by becoming the first Republican in the House to support impeachment proceedings for Trump based on special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings.

Trump and his allies swiftly fired back, casting Amash as an irrelevant political opportunist who has steadfastly refused to back the GOP agenda in Congress.

But Amash’s remarks energized Libertarians and united the “Never Trump” Republicans, who have been unable to recruit a candidate of their own to take on the president in 2020.

In interviews this year, Amash has toyed with the idea of abandoning the Republican Party to run for president as a Libertarian. That could have major implications for Amash’s home state of Michigan, which Trump carried by fewer than 11,000 votes in 2016.

There’s a full-scale effort underway to convince Amash to take the plunge. 

“There are a lot of Libertarian Party members actively encouraging Rep. Amash to switch parties and seek the Libertarian nomination,” said Nicholas Sarwark, the chairman of the Libertarian National Committee. “This is probably the most organized recruitment effort I’ve seen going back to 2012 when people were trying to recruit [former Texas Rep.] Ron Paul.”

Trump and his allies have mobilized quickly to shut Amash down.

The president called Amash a “total lightweight” over Twitter, saying he opposes “some of our great Republican ideas and policies just for the sake of getting his name out there.”

“Justin is a loser who sadly plays right into our opponents’ hands,” Trump said. 

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) called Amash’s remarks “disturbing” and questioned “whether he’s even in our Republican conference.”

“He never supported the president, and I think he’s just looking for attention,” McCarthy said on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures. 

Amash, a 39-year-old of Palestinian and Syrian descent, has expressed frustration with Republicans, accusing the party of abandoning its principles to accommodate Trump.

He has repeatedly bucked the president and his allies in Congress, co-sponsoring legislation to block Trump’s emergency declaration at the border.

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  • Consistent #29594

    Consistent #29595

    EVERYDAY #29599

    Well, I suspected there were political motives behind Mr. Amash’s comments, but if he really intends to mount a third party challenge to Trump, he is not likely to win. Voters in this country are stuck on two parties and don’t generally vote for anyone outside the two-party monopoly. Plus there is the matter of campaign dollars. Nearly impossible for an independent or third party candidate to mount an effective campaign without plenty of Benjamins, and big-money donors only support candidates from the two major parties.

    That said, I was contemplating sitting out next year’s presidential race because none of the candidates appeal to me. But if Mr. Amash runs, maybe I will vote for him.

    ConservativeGranny #29600

    I agree. At least it gives me a reason to even show up at the polls.

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