Independent Rep. Justin Amash and his leading Republican challenger in Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District, Peter Meijer, broadly agree on foreign policy. Both western Michigan figures oppose “endless wars” and favor military draw-downs abroad. But that’s about where the similarities end.
Meijer is making what he calls Amash’s lack of effective representation a key issue in the campaign. A scion of the family behind Grand Rapids-based Meijer grocery store chain, Meijer is running a campaign attacking Amash’s self-styled reputation as a principled libertarian conservative. Amash left the Republican Party on July 4, after months of friction with GOP colleagues after he called for President Trump’s impeachment, based on the Mueller report details over Russia’s efforts to help get the now-president elected in 2016.
Meijer told the Washington Examiner in an interview that western Michigan needs more “effective representation” rather than showboating disguised as principle, which he suggested Amash offered since joining the House in 2011. From the start of Amash’s congressional tenure, the 39-year-old feuded with House Republican leaders over spending, civil liberties, and a range of other issues. Toward the end of Amash’s first term GOP leaders removed him from the House Budget Committee, and now, as an independent, he has no committee assignments.
“When everyone views you as the ‘no’ guy in the corner it is hard to work together and get things done,” Meijer said. He also noted that while he admired Amash’s principles, his extreme devotion to them complicates the need to help the district, a longtime Republican stronghold that includes Grand Rapids and includes much of the territory once represented in the House by President Gerald Ford.
Meijer cited the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, launched in 2010 to accelerate efforts to protect and restore the water bodies, from which he said Amash was largely absent. Each of Trump’s proposed budget plans called for cutting funding to the Great Lakes. And while other House members from Michigan, in both parties, have fought the cuts, Amash has been noticeably absent.
When Trump first proposed the cuts, Amash was one of only two representatives from Michigan who refused to sign a letter condemning the idea. And while Michigan GOP House members such as John Moolenaar, Jack Bergman, and Bill Huizenga were able to convince Trump that the funding was important, Amash stayed silent.
“We have the third largest fishing economy in the country,” Meijer said, “and it’s important that we preserve our lakes.” He said he found it troubling that Amash “was not even in the room” to help.
Amash’s office did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Whether that line of attack is effective in taking on Amash is an open question. After all, 3rd District voters have known Amash’s small government stances for nearly a decade and have repeatedly returned him to Washington. And Meijer is far from Amash’s only challenger. Republican state Rep. Jim Lower joined the fray after Amash endorsed impeaching Trump, saying the incumbent “doesn’t get it” and is “siding with liberals.” Other Republican candidates, including businessman Joel Langlois and veteran Tom Norton, also talk up their support for Trump and his agenda. Several Democrats are running, too. The district has a six-point Republican voter registration edge, and in 2016 Trump beat Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton there 52% to 42%.
Meijer brings a bold-faced Midwest last name to the race and a potential to self-fund. About half of the company’s 242 stores are located in Michigan, with the remainder in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The chain was ranked No. 19 on Forbes magazine’s 2018 list of “America’s Largest Private Companies.”
Meijer spent summers in western Michigan stocking shelves for Meijer groceries before heading to West Point. Eventually, he transferred to Columbia University and enlisted in the Army Reserves. He served in Iraq, and helped with disaster response work in Afghanistan before retiring from service in 2015. Two years later he earned an M.B.A. from New York University, all the while acting as chairman of the board of director of Student Veterans Association, a national nonprofit veterans education organization.
Meijer’s time in the military led him to emphasize the importance of ending “senseless wars.” That is the one area where Amash and Meijer seem to agree.
Whatever the issue set that emerges ahead of November 2020, the race is likely to be seen as a national referendum on Trump. Michigan is a state that Trump won in 2016, and Amash’s efforts to distance himself from his party could signal a shift in the state’s identities and in the Republican Party. House Republicans consider Amash an apostate, while Independents and even some Democrats appreciate his consistent stances, even if they don’t always agree. It’s an unbridgeable split that will be decided one way or another at the same time Trump seeks reelection.
