Rep. Justin Amash Facing “Ugliest House Primary”

W. James Antle III at American
Conservative takes
a close look at the bruising attempts to bash
libertarian-leaning Republican congressman Justin Amash in his
ongoing Michigan primary:

Primary challenger Brian Ellis says he has just “been very
factual” about Michigan Republican Rep. Justin Amash’s voting
record, but National Journal has dubbed the
contest “the ugliest House primary of the cycle.”

Ellis has plowed at least $400,000 of his own money into a
primary challenge against Amash, whom he has called “al Qaeda’s
best friend in Congress,” among other pleasantries. The businessman
has made himself the candidate of K Street Republicans, the
Michigan Chamber of Commerce, and the neoconservatives.

So far, the polling doesn’t suggest this is enough to make him
the candidate of the Republican Party in his district. A Wenzel
Strategies poll commissioned by the Amash campaign shows the
incumbent trouncing Ellis by 22 points, with Amash taking 56
percent of the vote to Ellis’s 34 percent….

Ellis, as Antle notes, faces a challenge that a fellow
Republican would have to face against someone as libertarian as
Amash:

He simultaneously portrays himself as more moderate and more
conservative than Amash. So far, the latter message doesn’t seem to
be breaking through. In the June poll, Amash led 60 percent to 31
percent among Tea Party supporters while Ellis led 53 percent to 35
percent among self-described Tea Party opponents.

Ellis uses Amash’s generally strong defense of his constituents’
civil liberties as a hook to seem “tougher on national security”
including using a Marine vet’s voice in an attack ad. 

“We were out there fighting for the country, and he’s voting
against anything that would help us,” the veteran says in the
voice-over.

Perhaps what would most help American troops is bringing them
back from pointless and useless foreign entanglements, an idea that
is making more and more sense to more and more Republicans.

I interviewed Amash after his last successful election as
part
of a package of liberty-minded Republicans in Congress.