Over the weekend, after he read the redacted Mueller report, Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) suggested that President Donald Trump should be impeached. Now a Michigan state representative has announced his intentions to primary Amash.
In a series of tweets, Amash gave his analysis of the report. In a final tweet, he summarized his principal conclusions: “1. Attorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented Mueller’s report. 2. President Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct. 3. Partisanship has eroded our system of checks and balances. 4. Few members of Congress have read the report.”
The Daily Wire reported that Amash was widely praised by leftists, including Alyssa Milano and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
In response to Amash’s tweet, State Rep. Jim Lower hinted at his intentions to primary Amash for Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District seat.
“This cannot go unchallenged! I support @realDonaldTrump, I support West Michigan values, I support our party’s values and I will have a major announcement regarding MI CD3 this week!”
On Monday afternoon, Lower launched his campaign website where he describes himself as a “Pro-Trump, Pro-Life, Pro-Jobs, Pro-2nd Amendment, Pro-Family Values Republican.”
According to the Detroit Free Press, Lower had already planned on running against Amash but moved up his announcement after Amash suggested Trump committed impeachable offenses.
Lower reportedly helped Amash with his campaign and voted for him in 2010, 2012, and 2014.
“At the time, I believed in what he was doing, but now I don’t,” Lower said to a local media outlet. “I’ve just been very disenchanted.”
On his campaign website, Lower called Amash out of touch and accused him of working with radical liberals to “take down our president.”
“Amash has not only failed to support President Trump as the President works to make the United States stronger and safer, he has now united with radical liberals like Democratic Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) to try and bring down our President,” Lower said. “He must be replaced and I am going to do it.”
Lower also said that he has been “quietly” meeting with activists, party leaders, voters, donors, and elected officials to build support for his campaign.
“I have also already hired my political team, which I will be announcing later this week,” Lower said. “It will take at least $1 million to beat Amash and we believe we can raise that amount and more.”
“Justin Amash was elected to Congress nearly 10 years ago. In that time the only bill he’s had signed into law renamed a post office in Lake Odessa,” Lower added.
The website also lists several examples of what Lower claims “shows how out of touch” his libertarian-leaning rival is. The examples include voting against cutting funds to Planned Parenthood, being “one of only eight members of Congress to vote against supplying Israel with needed military aid,” being the “only Republican in Congress to vote against a resolution supporting ICE,” and “considering running against Trump as a Libertarian candidate.”
According to his website, Lower was raised in a working-class family outside Grand Rapids and has a BA in Economics from Michigan State University and an MBA from Grand Valley State University. He has been a state representative for over two years.
Trump responded to Amash’s comment on Sunday, calling him a “total lightweight” and accusing him of looking for publicity.
“Never a fan of @justinamash, a total lightweight who opposes me and some of our great Republican ideas and policies just for the sake of getting his name out there through controversy.” Trump tweeted. “If he actually read the biased Mueller Report, ‘composed’ by 18 Angry Dems who hated Trump ….he would see that it was nevertheless strong on NO COLLUSION and, ultimately, NO OBSTRUCTION…Anyway, how do you Obstruct when there is no crime and, in fact, the crimes were committed by the other side? Justin is a loser who sadly plays right into our opponents’ hands!”