I had to look. You had the wrong Norton. This one's wife is Jamie.
Posted on 04/29/2019 7:43:32 PM PDT by Michigan Bowhunter
Justin Amash has a challenger in Michigan's 3rd Congressional district.
Amash has been a fiasco in Congress and he is a Never Trumper, less than useless. An appeal to his ego to try to get Trump out by syphoning off a key couple % points as Libertoonians have done in countless political races can be irresistible.
To wit: 2016. States that Libertarian Gary Johnson kept Trump from winning: Nevada (6 EV), Colorado (9 EV), New Mexico (5 EV), Minnesota (10 EV), New Hampshire (4 EV) & Maine’s 1st & majority vote (3 EV). That’s a whopping 37 Electoral Votes that a Libertarian was worth in handing those states to the Butcheress of Benghazi. Throw in Michigan’s 16 EVs and that’s 53 that Amash could potentially cost Trump.
Remember, the Libertarians aren’t there to win, they’re there to hand winnable races to Democrats. That’s all they have to do.
We wouldn’t be considering him if he wasn’t running in the GOP primary.
Hooray!
Too bad I had to go to you to find that out.
His web image is in dire need of improvement. Other than that, he talks a good talk.
There may be reason to be concerned about the Libertarian Party in the presidential election. But not if Amash is their nominee.
Any nominee they put up takes votes from the GOP candidate, and Amash as a nominee would attract votes AND $$. He is a known entity, even outside Michigan.
Amash has the lowest rating of Republicans on Veterans issues in the House....Nancy Pelosi has a higher rating than Justin on Veterans. Amash has not been 100% pro life. Amash opposes Israel. Amash did not even attend President Donald Trumps last visit to Grand Rapids just a couple of weeks ago.
He has been less than decent as a Representative in congress for the people of the 3rd CD. He needs to go. We can do better.
“He is a known entity, even outside Michigan”
Only because the MSM is always looking to create problems for Trump.
The libertarians will find some rube to put on the ticket. Whether it’s Amash or Joe Shmoe, I don’t think it matters. Last time they ran Gary Johnson and William Weld didn’t they? Both of them had executive experience. Once upon a time they had Ron Paul who spent a lot of time cultivating an image. I don’t think Amash is in the same league.
Let them put Amash on the ticket. He’s certainly not their best bet.
Not every Republican has to be aligned with Trump.
Amash brings ideological diversity to the GOP.
He is a libertarian Republican.
“He needs to go. We can do better.”
Norton looks good on paper. I suspect there are a lot of disgruntled real conservatives in his district. He really needs to improve his web presence though. There’s still time.
What’s he’s doing is attacking Trump by saying some of the same things democrats are saying, that is not acceptable. Not even Mitt Romney goes so far.
A few errant votes I can live with. He doesn’t love Trump? Whatever.
But the fact that he is even considering running for President as a third party candidate! Come on. To say that keeping the White House Republican is paramount would be the understatement of the Century.
He’s either a goddamn traitor or a delusional whackjob, either way he needs to be bounced.
Shilly won well over 50% in Maine-1.
I doubt very much all Johnson voters would have voted for Trump. These are people that made a conscious choice to toss their vote while knowing what was at stake. Many would have tossed it on someone else, stayed home, or voted Shillery.
To win NV for example, Trump would have needed over 70% of Johnson’s votes, that’s assuming NONE would go to Hillary. I don’t know if anyone did an exit poll of Johnson’s voters second choice but I guarantee you it was not close to that kind of differential.
To win MN he’d have needed 40% of Johnson’s votes (again with none to Hillary). Feasible. But other than ultra-close NH, you can’t say for sure third parties cost Trump any E votes.
One could even argue it’s good to give Never Trumpers (and uncommited dem leaners) a non-democrat outlet for their votes (the mathematical equivalent of not voting at all). It’s really hard to say not having any specific data.
Lets analyse him as a potential liartarian nominee in comparison to Johnson.
He is a pure Paultard as opposed to a more centrist social lib type like Johnson. And “pro-life” though he’s cast votes at odds with that assertion.
So he’s more appealing to traditional Libertarian voters and Paultard Republicans (bad for us as these people will not ever vote dem)
While being less appealing to establishment GOP Trumper haters (possibly bad if these voters just go dem or good if they hold their noses for Trump)
And much less appealing to dem leaners (bad).
He’s also less prominent than Johnson (good). I wouldn’t be so certain he’d be much of a special threat in his home state given he’s just a Congressman. Illinois was not even close to being John Anderson’s best state in 1980, paper tiger Virgil Goode got 0.34% in Virginia in 2012. And Trump won MI with Johnson taking 3.57% and Castle (Taxpayers/Constitution) and McMuffin taking another 0.4% between them. I can’t see Amash doing any better than Johnson did in MI.
All in all I’d say him as the Libertarian nominee wouldn’t be good for us but nothing to panic about. If one were super worried about Amash the smart play would be to ensure he’s given a free ride to keep his house seat so he doesn’t run for President.
Obviously we shouldn’t do that. I’m sick of this chump spouting lib talking points.
Good news is the state primary is very late, August 7th. So he can’t lose the House primary and then jump into the Presidential race.
I just hope that the Republicans will hold the seat...
You’re wrong on MN. Baris said Trump was leading-—or doing well enough-—in MN early voting until the Access Hollywood tape came out and he could directly point to that in his polling as costing Trump MN. Trump lost by 40,000, almost all coming from the EV margin. Outside of Minny-St. Paul, he won MN 2:1 on election day.
That’s an easy margin to overcome. I do think a majority-—not all—of Johnsons’ voters will be Trump voters this time. But Ds will have a MUCH bigger hurdle with their own “Johnson.” If Biteme wins it will be someone on the left, possibly Dinobernie himself. If Dinobernie wins, Schultz will come in. It won’t be no 1% Jill Stein. It will be significant, enough to hand ME, NH, and possibly CO and NM to Trump.
Sorry, Amash running as an L would hand MI more to Trump than before.
Piss off and Leave FR.
Works for me!
Amash has been known for his “stances” since he arrived in the House in 2011, so this is not a recent thing.
Every Republican should be aligned with Trump. As for ideological “die-versity”, we need left-wing RINOs like we need a hole in the head.
It’s a reliably GOP district. It last elected a Democrat in a 1973 special and 1974 when it was the 5th district. Before that, not since 1912.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.