When the recent redrawing of Michigan’s U.S. House districts placed Republican Rep. Fred Upton in the same district as a fellow GOP lawmaker, the 36-year House veteran said he would announce his decision on whether to retire or run again by the end of the month.
That was in early January. With barely 48 hours left in the month, sources close to Upton, 68, told Newsmax on Saturday night that the onetime chairman of the House Energy Committee has yet to decide.
“Fred really has not decided what to,” said one source who requested anonymity, “He can retire and enjoy more time with his family, which now includes grandchildren. Or he can run again in the new 4th District against [Republican Rep.] Bill Huizenga.”
Part of what is holding Upton back from a final decision, the same source said, “is that you have to remember Fred is a ‘numbers guy’— going back to his days working for [Ronald Reagan’s Office and Management and Budget director and onetime Michigan Rep.] Dave Stockman. He feels the district lines were drawn in a very bad and unfair way and may yet be reversed.”
Upton is not alone in feeling Michigan Republicans got a “raw deal” in redistricting that was done for the first time by an ostensibly independent commission. In a map that was released shortly after Christmas, substantial portions of Upton’s former 6th District (including Allegan and Van Buren Counties) with portions of Huizenga’s former 2nd District (including Ottawa County and Holland) were put into the same district.
Huizenga, who has been in the House 12 years and turns 53 on January 31, has already made clear he plans to run in the new 4th regardless of what Upton does. Huizenga has a lifetime American Conservative Union rating of 89 percent, compared to Upton’s lifetime ACU rating of 68 percent.
Upton first came to Congress in 1986 by unseating stalwart conservative Rep. Mark Siljander in the Republican primary. In 1990, he won a spirited primary over the late conservative State Sen. Ed Fredricks and and in ’02, he defeated another conservative State Sen. Dale Shugars (who last year was named by Upton as his top district representative).
Most recently, Upton was one of the ten Republican U.S. Representatives to vote for Donald Trump’s impeachment. The former president has sworn revenge on the Wolverine State lawmaker and his vote to impeach led to Upton’s censure by the Allegan Republican County Committee.
“That may be what is keeping Fred from stepping down,” a former House GOP colleague of Upton told us, “He knows that the day he says he’s not running, Trump will put out a press release claiming he forced him out.”
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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