On Thursday, after hearing that a new poll showed Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), who has publicly called for President Trump’s impeachment, losing badly to primary opponent Michigan state representative Jim Lower (R-Greenville), Donald Trump Jr. indicated that he might travel to Michigan to help Lower in his campaign, tweeting, “See you soon Justin. I hear Michigan is beautiful during primary season.”
The new poll from Michigan Information & Research Service showed Lower garnering 49% of the votes of respondents while Amash polled only at 33%. Amash has served four terms as the representative for Michigan’s 3rd congressional district.
After Amash publicly called for the president’s impeachment, Lower announced he would challenge Amash for his seat, stating, “Congressman Justin Amash tweets yesterday calling for President Trump’s impeachment show how out of touch he is with the truth and how out of touch he is with people he represents, He must be replaced and I am going to do it.” The Daily News reported that Lower said of Amash, “I helped with his campaign. Hell, I voted for Amash in ’10, ’12 and ’14. At the time, I believed in what he was doing, but now I don’t. I’ve just been very disenchanted … I was like, I can’t let this go by without commenting on it. It’s not every day your Congressman says your president should be impeached.”
In July 2018, Amash was the only Republican to vote against a resolution supporting the officers and personnel of ICE. He tweeted, “The House voted today on an inane resolution regarding ICE. The resolution makes several dubious claims and denounces calls to abolish ICE. I wouldn’t abolish ICE without an alternative, but there’s no reason to treat a federal agency as though it’s beyond reproach and reform.”
In February 2019 Amash joined House Democrats, co-sponsoring a resolution blocking President Trump’s emergency declaration to obtain funds for a wall at the southern border. He tweeted, “A national emergency declaration for a non-emergency is void. A prerequisite for declaring an emergency is that the situation requires immediate action and Congress does not have an opportunity to act. @POTUS @realDonaldTrump is attempting to circumvent our constitutional system.”
In 2014, during the war Israel fought with Hamas in Gaza, Amash voted against additional funding for Israel’s Iron Dome system, which was trying to intercept rockets launched against it by Hamas. In January 2019, when New Jersey Republican Chris Smith put forth a bill titled the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Act (HR 221) that urged expediting the appointment of a new Anti-Semitism Special Envoy at the State Department, Amash was the only representative from either party to vote against it.
When he announced his campaign against Amash, Lower noted Amash’s votes against cutting funds to Planned Parenthood, the Iron Dome funding, funding the Department of Defense, the resolution supporting the Immigration & Customs Enforcement Agency and Amash’s vote permitting illegal immigrants to vote in local elections, commenting, “His voting record shows how out of touch he is with his constituents. Had I been the congressman from the 3rd District, I would have voted the exact opposite of Amash on each and every one of these votes.”