Congressman Amash Now Won’t Run For President

Justin Amash represents Calhoun County, Barry, and Ionia counties, and parts of a couple of others in west-central Michigan in the U.S. House of Representatives. He won the seat as a Republican. But last July he bolted from the GOP and proclaimed himself an Independent. He was and remains a vocal critic of President Donald Trump.  Amash earlier announced his candidacy for another term in Congress. But just a few weeks ago, announced he’d put his congressional bid on hold to run for the Presidency as a Libertarian Party candidate. His latest move is to announce over the weekend he is putting that attempt to bed. Amash has not specified whether he will resume his bid for re-election to the 3rd congressional district. But. He has a few weeks remaining to get back in the race. Some political observers think he may try to keep the seat despite being off the campaign trail for a couple of months. The weekend announcement by Amash comes just before the Libertarian Party is scheduled to conduct its national convention.

Amash is blaming the decision in part on the media, and the COVID-19 virus outbreak, getting in the way of him being taken seriously. “…this environment”, says Amash, “presents extraordinary challenges.” Political pundits have been at odds with each other about whether an Amash run would, or could, impact President Trump’s chances of winning Michigan again. Some were offering counter views about whether Amash could help or hurt a Joe Biden candidacy.  A more typical view held by many is Amash would not have had much effect either way.  We now get to wait to see what’s next for Amash, and what he will do about the 3rd district congressional race.