Days after launching an exploratory committee to seek the Libertarian Party’s nomination for president, Rep. Justin Amash stunned his constituents in Michigan’s 3rd District as well as the national punditocracy by announcing this weekend he would not run for president after all.
But Amash’s tweets announcing his pull-out from the presidential contest pointedly said nothing about whether he would try to run again for Congress in the Grand Rapids-area district.
This has created early alarm among 3rd District Republicans, who are worried that if the five-term lawmaker seeks reelection as an independent, Amash will take enough votes from the eventual Republican nominee to throw the race to liberal Democrat Hillary Scholten.
Amash cited the pandemic as the chief reason for his not running as a Libertarian, explaining that under current circumstances, voters are not interested in an agenda of smaller government.
Under election law, May 8 was the deadline for Amash to file as a Libertarian for the August 4 primary. So his sole option would be to run as an independent, with July 16 as the filing deadline.
The 3rd District, held by President Gerald Ford from 1948 to '73, has been in Republican hands for all but two years since 1912.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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