Justin Amash Announces Possible Senate Run in 2014
With Sen. Carl Levin (Dinosaur-Mich.) recently announcing his impending retirement, the numero uno libertarian in the House of Representatives, Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), has thrown his hat in the ring, according to the Detroit News.
U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, a young firebrand in the lower chamber who has championed a Ron Paul-style of libertarian politics, said Monday he is "certainly open" to a run in 2014.
"Frankly, we can't afford to nominate another unelectable establishment Republican," Amash, R-Cascade Township, told The Detroit News. "History shows they don't appeal to moderate and independent voters."
Amash is not the only Republican considering the seat, but:
"I don't think any of the names that are being tossed around have quite hit the spot for most Republican voters or for most voters in the general election," Amash said. "People both within the Republican Party and within the general electorate are tired of the pro-corporate welfare, anti-civil liberties Republican. I think we need to stop running on the past."
Brian Doherty wrote about the Amash-for-Senate trial balloon last month (in a post linking back to much of Reason's Amash coverage). Nick Gillespie interviewed the maverick young congressman about the sequester last month; a longer Q&A from that session will be posted here soon.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
If I donate money to him before he announces his run, can he use it in the Senate campaign?
Probably not, unless you send him paper money. His staff would know what the law says, though.
Let's see if Mitch McConnell (or his replacement, when's he up?) can dick him around as well as Boehner did.
Mitch McConnell is up for election as Senate Minority Leader every day. Anytime half of the Senate Rs decide to ditch him, he can lose that job.
Michigan isn't Kentucky. The UAW etc would go all in to destroy him, assuming the neocons don't zilch him in the primary.
Michigan went Right to Work. I don't remember what date the law takes effect but I'd wager there will be 75% less of them UAW workers by November of 2014.
Just checked. End of March 2013, so a couple of weeks.
WELCH YOURE PROBABLY THE WRONG GUY TO CAST ASPERSIONS ON GUYS ABILITY TO GROW FACIAL HAIR.
BUT I AM NOT RUNNING FOR SENATE, AM I????
Are you going to tolerate that from him, Matt? I think we can all agree that it's high time Hugh was banned, for simple matters of taste at least.
O why not, we need more articulate guys to run for office now that the door has been blown wide open anyways
If elected wouldn't that make him the first US Senator in history of Middle Eastern heritage?
WTF? He's on of them damn camel jockeys? Why don't he have a towel on his head?
George Mitchell had a Lebanese mother, John Sununu (the younger) is Palestinian and Lebanese, and his replacement Jeanne Shaheen is Lebanese. There may be others I'm not aware of.
There have also been several Jewish senators, who probably have some Middle Eastern ancestry.
2 libertarians in the senate, at the same time? The rule of law will break down! ANARCHY!
Jeff Flake and Mike Lee are all right. Cruz has potential.
Anyone who lives in MI want to handycap his chances of winning? Is Amash broadly popular in the state or just his district?
I'm going to go out on a limb and say he's largely unknown outside of his district.
Remember, he's been around Congress for all of 2 years, and prior to that served a single term in the State House.
I think Amash probably has decent name recognition on the western side of the state. Some people might recognize him in the Midland area (one of the few Republican outposts, home of Dow Chemical, and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy).
I can say with 100% certainty no one in Saginaw would recognize Justin Amash's name. The same is probably true of Bay City and Flint. I'm not sure about further down state (Detroit-metro) or in the capital.
"Republican Michigander" has some decent analysis. RM puts Mike Rogers ahead of Justin Amash, I agree, but I haven't heard anything about Rogers making a move for the Senate seat.
Sometimes man you jsut gotta roll with it dude.
http://www.EliteAnon.tk
Word, Anon-douche. Word.