Libertarian Justin Amash Considering GOP Bid for Open Michigan Senate Seat
The former Michigan representative left the Republican party in 2019, saying the ‘two-party system has evolved into an existential threat to American principles.’
One of America’s most outspoken libertarians, Justin Amash, is considering running for Michigan’s open Senate seat by joining the Republican primary.
In a Thursday announcement on X, the former House Representative and member of the Libertarian party said he is launching a “Senate Exploratory Committee” as he considers joining the race, adding that he has been “humbled in recent weeks by the many people who have urged me to run for Senate and to do so by joining the Republican primary.”
“They see what I see: contenders for the seat who are uninspired, unserious, and unprepared to tackle the chief impediment to liberty and economic prosperity — an overgrown and abusive government that strives to centralize power and snuff out individualism,” Mr. Amash said.
Mr. Amash announced he was leaving the GOP and declaring independence in a 2019 Washington Post op-ed, in which he lamented the “partisan death spiral” of politics. He had written that Americans owed it to future generations to tell the “Republican Party and the Democratic Party that we’ll no longer let them play their partisan game at our expense” and said the “two-party system has evolved into an existential threat to American principles.”
Nearly five years after leaving the party, Mr. Amash said in his Thursday announcement the “stakes are high” in the Senate race.
“We need a principled, consistent constitutional conservative in the Senate — someone with a record of taking on the bipartisan oligarchy, defending sound money and free speech, fighting the surveillance state and military-industrial complex, and protecting all our rights,” he wrote.
If Mr. Amash chooses to run, he would be joining a list of candidates that includes businessman Sandy Pensler, former Congressmen Mike Rogers and Peter Meijer, as well as a former Detroit police chief, James Craig.
In 2020, Mr. Amash announced he was launching an exploratory committee to consider a Libertarian party presidential run, before announcing a month later that he decided, upon reflection, not to run.
