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GRAND RAPIDS, MI – After months of speculation, U.S. Representative Justin Amash, Township of I-Cascade, has made it official: He’s launching a exploratory committee for a third presidential candidacy.
Amash, a former Republican turned independent and fierce critic of President Donald Trump, is well known in West Michigan and political circles. Now, as a potential presidential candidate, even more eyes, from West Michigan and beyond, will be on him.
The launch of his exploratory committee is another big moment for Amash, who landed in the national spotlight in May 2019 when he became the first Republican in Congress to call for impeachment proceedings against Trump. He made headlines again in July when he announced that America’s two-party system was broken and he was quitting the Republican Party.
Here are some things you need to know to understand the fifth congressman, who represents Michigan’s 3rd congressional district.
independent freedom of mind
Amash, who was elected to Congress in 2010 amid the tea party wave, describes himself as a constitutional conservative and libertarian. He won his House seat after serving one term in the Michigan House of Representatives, where he established himself as a hard worker who voted against any bill he didn’t have time to vote on. read or that has expanded the role of government.
When he talks about his political heroes, it’s not conservative icons like Ronald Reagan who come first. Instead, he points to obscure economic theorists such as Frédéric Bastiat and Friedrich Hayek as his great political inspirations.
Amash is a strong believer in limited government, the free market, and civil liberties.
He crossed party lines to advance these principles. In 2013, he partnered with the late U.S. Representative John Conyers, D-Detroit, on a bill to reduce government monitoring programs. A Republican, Representative Devin Nunes, I called him “Al-Qaeda’s best friend in Congress.”
Amash graduated from Grand Rapids Christian High School and later attended the University of Michigan, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and a law degree. It was at UM that he was introduced to economic theories that rejected prevailing Keynesian views that government spending could stimulate economies.
These lessons and theories have helped shape his conservative views, such as his opposition to President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act as well as targeted government subsidies and targeted tax breaks for employers. He once equated the latter with “corporate cronyism and well-being.”
The child of immigrants
Amash was born in 1980, the middle child of three sons, to Attallah and Mimi Amash, an immigrant couple who grew wealthy in West Michigan despite having humble origins.
Attallah Amash moved to Muskegon from Palestine in 1956, aged 16, with his parents and six siblings. The family lived in refugee camps after being driven from their home near Bethlehem by a fledgling nation of Israel trying to reestablish themselves in the Middle East.
Related: Profile of 3rd Congressional District candidate Justin Amash
An entrepreneur, Attallah Amash then started a small wholesale business that supplied hardware stores with imported items. This company eventually became Amash Imports Inc. The Grand Rapids-area company was best known for importing hand tools sold at hardware stores, lumber yards, auto centers and farm supply stores.
At school, Justin Amash excelled in math.
He also had a passion for art, developed a love of trees, and parodied an advice column for the high school newspaper. In 1998, while a senior at Grand Rapids Christian High School, he told a Grand Rapids Press reporter that Dr. Spock was his favorite Star Trek character and that he planned to pursue a degree in economics and science. right.
“Mathematics is my favorite subject and the logic used in mathematics can be applied to everyday life,” he said. “Law is a place where logic is needed.”
He’s a nonconformist
Amash does not hesitate to go it alone.
In his decade in Congress, he did a lot to antagonize lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. This earned him a reputation for principle, but also – in the eyes of some people – for being uncompromising.
He has refused to support GOP budget bills because they do not do enough to rein in federal spending and reduce the national debt. He voted for Republican legislation to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, earning him the ire of Democrats in his district.
Even legislation targeting his home country does not get a free pass.
He was the only member of Michigan’s congressional delegation to vote against reauthorizing the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
The bill, which passed the House with bipartisan support in February, would increase Great Lakes funding from $300 million in 2021 to $475 million by 2026. An Amash spokesperson said the congressman supports the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. But the relevant committee did not justify the increase, “especially at a time when the country is $23 trillion in debt,” he said.
Amash has had an independent streak from the start.
After being elected to the State House in 2008, he established himself as a maverick who voted the only “no” in the state legislature 60 times. He also voted against bills he didn’t have time to read or expanded the role of government.
Such an approach has earned Amash a legion of fans – and plenty of critics.
U.S. Representative Paul Mitchell, R-Dryden, likened Amash’s approach to the motto, “It’s my way or the highway.”
“Effective lawmaking requires compromise, and as we’ve seen recently, there are vocal minorities on both sides of the aisle in Congress who speak out and vote against legislation with broad bipartisan support if they don’t get 100 % of what they ask for,” Mitchell wrote in a 2019 editorial for The Hilla Washington DC-based news site.
Former Republican U.S. Representative Mike Rogers told Politico in 2014 that Amash was “completely out of step” with the people of his district.
“He votes more with Democrats than with Republicans, and it’s not on principle, it’s because he’s posing as something different,” he told the news site.
Amash lost the support of prominent members of the West Michigan business community.
Last year, the DeVos family — a prominent player in Republican politics for decades — announced they were no longer supporting him financially.
In 2013, several Grand Rapids-area businessmen who lent their support and money behind Amash jumped ship and united behind his main challenger at the time, local businessman Brian Ellis. . At the time, Amash drew attention for voting against reopening the federal government amid a shutdown.
In a fundraising plea for Ellis, business leaders – including former Amash donor businessman JC Huzienga, former Perrigo CEO Mike Jandernoa and Mark Bissell of Bissell Inc. – have writes that Amash and “others effectively overturned the Republican majority in the United States House. ”
“Their actions gave the GOP a black eye while simultaneously re-energizing the Obama administration,” the letter said.
Amash, who went on to defeat Ellis in the August 2014 primary, defended his style.
“When I was elected, as part of the Tea Party movement, people cared about limited government,” Amash said in the Washington Post. “Under this government, spending has skyrocketed. But I haven’t changed. I am who I said I was. I am a principled constitutional conservative.
Prolific on social media
In the hours or days following his votes, Amash can be seen on social media explaining, often in great detail, why they voted for or against a bill.
He did so in late February and early March, after joining three Republicans and voting against legislation that would make lynching a federal hate crime. In more than two dozen tweets, Amash criticized the content of the bill — “it prohibits activities that are already illegal under federal law” — and took aim at the media coverage of the case.
He’s done the same throughout his career, on matters big and small.
In 2012, Amash posted his 1,000th consecutive explanation of vote on Facebook, according to his office. Subject matter: A house bill to rename a US post office in East Rockaway, New York.
Amash voted yes.
“When I came to Congress, I was told by other representatives that it would be impossible to explain every vote I take.” Amash said in a statement released at the time. “Explaining my actions to Congress is an essential part of this job. If I can do it, the other representatives and senators can too.
Amash doesn’t limit her voice to social media. Over the years, he has addressed voters directly at town hall meetings throughout his district.
The meetings sometimes became tense. In June 2017, after voting for Republican legislation to overhaul President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, Amash was grilled by progressives and democrats who feared rising medical costs and reduced benefits.
He was also welcomed as a hero.
At a town hall in May 2019, his first public appearance after calling for impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, he was received with several standing ovationsand several participants thanked him for his “courage”.
But even amid the fanfare, he faced several angry voters, who accused him of attacking the president and acting like he was a Democrat. Amash did not wither away amid the criticism. While some of his supporters scoffed at the remarks, he urged the crowd to be respectful and listen to those who disagree with him.
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