U.S. Representative Justin Amash is making a bid to shake up this oddly socially-distanced U.S. presidential campaign with last week’s announcement of an exploratory committee to seek the Libertarian Party nomination. He becomes the first avowed Libertarian in the U.S. House after being its first Palestinian-American. Due to Covid-19, plans for the party nominating convention, originally planned for May 21-25, are in flux.
The Michigan maverick is by far the best-known of the Libertarian hopefuls. He won headlines last year by quitting the Republican Party to protest Trump-ism, became the House’s only Independent, and was the lone non-Democrat voting to impeach the president.
Reality check. No third party has taken the White House since the Republicans in 1860, when Abraham Lincoln won with only 39.8 percent of the popular vote in an unusual four-way race.
The Libertarians’ best-ever showing was only 3.3 percent in 2016. Amash "uh-MOSH") got only 1 percent support against Biden (46 percent) and Trump (42 percent) in a mid-April Morning Consult poll. But he claimed to Reason magazine that he’s no “spoiler” and has a shot because “most Americans” think that Joe Biden and Trump “aren’t up to being president” and want an alternative.
Despite his anti-Trump credentials, Politico.com thinks it’s unclear whether Amash “would do more damage to Biden or Trump.” Showing the potential for conservative support, the Washington Examiner’s Brad Polumbo championed Amash against what he sees as the incompetent, “fundamentally indecent” Trump and the “frail,” too-leftist Biden.
Amash is also free of the sexual misconduct accusations against the two major party candidates — which they deny.
Religion reporters will note that Amash is one of only five Eastern Orthodox members of Congress. His Palestinian father and Syrian mother came to the U.S. as immigrants thanks to sponsorship by a pastor in Muskegon. He attended Grand Rapids Christian High School, where he met his wife Kara, later an alumna of the Christian Reformed Church’s Calvin University.
On the religiously contested abortion issue, Amash’s “pro-life” stand agrees with Orthodox Church teaching, and the National Right to Life Committee gives him a 100 percent rating. That clashes with the Libertarians’ pro-choice platform, but Amash plans to emphasize banning of public funding, on which his new party agrees.
Amash holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a law degree, both from the University of Michigan. He was an attorney for the family’s industrial tool company and at a young age 28 won a state House of Representatives seat in 2008. Also winning that year was the legislature’s first Muslim woman, also of Palestinian background, Detroit’s Democratic firebrand Rashida Tlaib.
Just two years later, Amash won his first U.S. House race, boosted by the Tea Party wave and Amway’s Richard and Betsy DeVos, and made Time magazine’s “40 under 40” list. Tlaib followed him into the U.S. House in 2018. A stalwart of the Republicans’ libertarian faction and a disciple of economist F.A. Hayek, Amash founded the House Liberty Caucus and backed Ron Paul for the 2012 presidential nomination.
Reporters will certainly quiz a Palestinian-American on policy toward Israel and the Mideast, since his party wants the U.S. to shun “foreign entanglements.” It would also be appropriate to ask just how a small-government conservative like Amash would handle the massive coronavirus crisis. FYI, click here for the pieces of legislation Amash has sponsored.
Note: The filing deadline for Amash’s House district, at the heart of western Michigan’s Bible Belt, occurs tomorrow, May 8. Amash professed confidence he’d win re-election as an Independent but his district is solidly Republican and went for Trump. Predecessors in this seat included future President Gerald Ford and the late Paul Henry, former Calvin professor and son of Christianity Today magazine’s founding editor Carl F. H. Henry.
Contacts: The Amash family attends St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church (also on Facebook) in the Grand Rapids suburb of Kentwood, led by the Very. Rev. Michael Nasser (616-954-2700). Amash’s Washington office: 202) 226-3831. Grand Rapids office: 616-451-8383. Also see: AmashForAmerica.com and his congressional home page.