GRAND RAPIDS, MI — When U.S. Rep. Justin Amash entered Congress in 2010 many saw him as destined for the Beltway fringe, but during his first two terms in office, the Cascade Township Republican has built a libertarian following and worked his way into the national conversation.

The talk has come from his staunch advocacy for civil liberties and establishing a leadership style lauded by independents and others who have often branded him "the next Ron Paul."

But he's also faced harsh criticism by the longest-serving members, including Arizona Sen. John McCain, who famously labeled Amash and others "wacko birds."

Locally, Amash's vote totals continue to show his popularity and his passion, as shown in this primary victory speech aimed at Brian Ellis, for remaking the federal bureaucracy remains high.

He frequently clashes with party-line votes by either going against leadership or simply voting "present" as he did in 2013 and 2014 measures to authorize the Keystone XL pipeline. Amash broke away in those votes and others when legislation singles out a particular company or group, something he considers unconstitutional

Amash, in a recent interview, showed that his direction will not change as he enters his third term in the U.S. House.

More: Reaction to North Korean cyberattack sets 'dangerous precedent,' Rep. Justin Amash says

Read on for more with the congressman

MLive: Share with us the highs and the lows of the previous Congress. Going beyond that, your proudest moments, your biggest shortcomings?

Amash: The highs would be the coalition that we're building in the House Liberty Caucus. When I first started developing this caucus a few years ago, there weren't that many people involved, and now we have regular attendance of about 20 people, and we invite about 35 to 40 to our lunches, and it continues to grow. Because the Republican Study Committee has really moved away from being the voice of principled conservatives in the House, we have an opening to really grow that organization, and I'm really proud of what we've been able to do.

The lows would have to be last week of session. When you look at the bills that were passed, they were some of the worst pieces of legislation that I've seen in my four years of Congress. We had an Intelligence Authorization Act where they, the intelligence committee or community, whoever wrote it, snuck in language that would authorize the Executive Branch to collect data, retain it, disseminate it, basically regardless of what type of data is it ... metadata communications, anything. They tried to voice vote that, which means they were going to pass it without having one vote on it.

... We caught wind of that and were able to get a roll call vote. [It passed.]

We had a national defense authorization act which passed ... that continued the policy of indefinite detention, funded the Syrian rebels for another two years and had a whole host of of additional provisions that were problematic. ... Then the "cromnibus" ... I agreed with a lot of the concerns my Democratic colleagues had. I certainly had my own concerns as a conservative. I don't think there are many people out there in our communities who support this piece of legislation. I think there are a few powerful interest groups that support it, and they really called the shots here and persuaded the party leadership on both sides to go with this piece of legislation.

Nancy Pelosi was the only exception, and I very rarely ever agree with her. She happened to be, in this case, on the right side of it. And I think principled liberals and conservatives were on the right side of it in voting no.

MLive: To what extent will Justin Amash have any influence in this upcoming congress ... and next year, what accomplishments will we be talking about?

Amash: I hope that the House Liberty Caucus continues to grow and becomes more of a force within the Republican Party. I'd like to see some of the new members who are arriving in Washington take a path that is different from the outgoing members.

For a lot of (them), it was about "team Republican," and I'm proud to be a Republican, but my first duty is to be the representative to all of the people in the Third District and follow the Constitution. And if we have more people taking the path of taking the Constitution and their constituents first, I think we'll have a better Congress, and I think I will have had some impact on that.

Earlier: Justin Amash casts surprising vote against embattled Speaker John Boehner's reelection

MLive: You're too not fond of House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio ...

Amash: I wouldn't put it that way. (laughs)

MLive: It sounds then you wouldn't want him to be speaker in a new Congress. Would you vote for him to be speaker or do you have someone else in mind?

Amash: I've clarified before and I'll clarify again: I have a very good relationship with Speaker Boehner, personally. We meet on a regular basis. He probably meets with me as often as he meets with any rank and file member. ... I respect the difficulty of his position, and I believe that he does like me. (laughs)

There are certainly members within leadership where you wonder what they're about and are they just playing a game. I think Speaker Boehner is who he is, and you might disagree with his policy decisions, but I believe he's the person he says he is.

With that said, I'm deeply troubled by the legislation we had over the past week. I'm deeply troubled by what I think were some misleading statements by the leadership team about the "cromnibus" and the process that brought it to the floor. I'm not going to put that on Speaker Boehner, but the leadership as a whole. And I want to have these conversations with the speaker before we have the vote for speaker and I haven't made a decision yet about what I'll do, but I need to see that things are moving in the right direction.

MLive: It's early, but are you keeping tabs on the 2016 presidential race? What sort of qualities would you want to see a presidential contender have ... particular candidates?

Amash: It's early in the process. I obviously have a lot of affection for the approach Rand Paul takes, which in many ways is like my approach - reaching out to people across the aisle, not worrying whether something is a Republican idea or a Democratic idea while standing by the Constitution and pursuing conservative principles.

The idea of a Clinton/Bush race probably makes everyone a little bit queasy. I think it would send the wrong message to the rest of the world. People look at our country as a land of opportunity where anyone can become president of the United States ... (Obama's election) gave the world an image of America as they probably think of it in an ideal sense, that anyone can become president here. And if you go back to this era of Clinton versus Bush and just recycle politicians or recycle family names, it looks like we're going backwards.

Andrew Krietz covers breaking, politics and transportation news for MLive and The Grand Rapids Press. Email him at akrietz@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter.