Rep. Justin Amash (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Taking a lonely stand, Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) became the first and so far only Congressional Republican to suggest that President Donald Trump conducted impeachable conduct. As a result, the libertarian-leaning Amash has been abandoned by many prominent Republican leaders and donors who have given him thousands of dollars in financial backing. And now he faces a Trump-supporting primary challenger.

Amash, who was first elected to the House as part of the Tea Party Republican wave in 2010, is a founding member of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus. The caucus voted on May 20 to condemn Amash’s stance on impeachment.

The Freedom Caucus was originally founded as an anti-Republican establishment group in 2015 by nine Tea Party Republicans. They went on to successfully lead the caucus in deposing former Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) as Speaker of the House. However, since the ascendancy of Trump, the Freedom Caucus has evolved to become a group of the President’s staunchest defenders.

The widespread Republican backlash from his impeachment comments could make his political future more difficult, especially as Amash has been a bit of a fundraising lightweight. In what has been a fairly safe Republican district, Amash never brought in much money compared to the average for House members. Throughout his career, he has raised a total of $5.6 million. Now facing a serious primary challenger in Michigan State Representative Jim Lower, many of Amash’s financial backers may abandon him.

Amash’s top career contributor is the free-market, conservative Club for Growth. Its affiliates have given $275,630, almost all of which were earmarked contributions from Club members, over his five successful campaigns. They even helped him successfully fend off a primary challenge in 2014 by spending $440,557 against businessman Brian Ellis and $70,802 in support of Amash. Their ads slammed Ellis for raising taxes and wasteful spending. After his support of impeachment, the Club for Growth criticized Amash, though it’s still unclear whether they will back his Republican opponent.

He’s already lost the support of another important group of donors — the powerful and wealthy DeVos family. The family of Trump administration Education Secretary Betsy DeVos have been prominent Republican donors, especially in their home state of Michigan, and have been supporters of Amash since his first election. In his recent 2018 reelection campaign, DeVos family members contributed a total of $24,300.

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One of his top contributors in 2018 was the House Freedom Fund, affiliated with Freedom Caucus leaders, which contributed $27,748 in mostly earmarked gifts. Now facing backlash and formal condemnation from the caucus membership, it seems unlikely that he will receive the same level of support.

Another of the founders of the caucus, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) contributed $4,000 from his campaign committee to Amash in 2018 — yet another financial flow likely to be cut off as Jordan is one of Trump’s staunchest supporters.

Amash’s stance on impeachment drew the ire of the national party with Trump tweeting that he is a “total lightweight” and a “loser.” Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, slammed Amash over his comments. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) also harshly criticized Amash calling the comments “very disturbing” and describing his colleague as an attention-seeker.

Much of Amash’s PAC money came from GOP-linked PACs which are unlikely to fund a candidate attracting party anger.

The controversy has raised his profile enough that Amash has said that he “can’t rule out” a third-party run for president in 2020, possibly as part of the Libertarian Party. However, when asked on May 21, he said “I’m not thinking about that right now. I’m defending the Constitution.”



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