Justin Amash congressional photo.
Independent congressman Justin Amash is launching an exploratory bid for the Libertarian Party's presidential primary race. The Hill. Amash left the Republican Party last year and has been mulling a presidential run since. Libertarians have been pressuring him to do so as they lack a credible candidate. However, Amash is hated by the GOP for backing the Democrats impeachment effort. It is unclear who Amash would draw his votes from as President Trump earns very high ratings from Republican voters.
My Comment:
I know the Libertarian Party is in dire straits lately due to a lack of candidates and recent candidate Gary Johnson refusing to run, but I don't think this is the answer. Honestly, I think they should send their support to Vermin Supreme, the joke candidate that promises free ponies for every American. He's not a serious candidate but then again, I don't think the Libertarians are a serious party.
What the Libertarians think they need is a credible candidate that has name recognition and Amash is probably that. He's well known for his stunts and his betrayal of the Republican Party. If nothing else he's famous which is a lot better than people like Jacob Hornberger or Adam Kokesh. I would say that Vermin Supreme is the 2nd most famous candidate if Amash ends up joining the race.
The problem is that the Libertarian ideal is more unpopular than ever. Though I admire their stance on gun rights the party is fiscally conservative and socially liberal. Some of their platform is popular to some degree, like drug legalization, but economically their party isn't going to get support. Democrats hate their economic policies and the GOP hates their support of open borders, which is a non-starter under normal circumstances and just insane when there is a major pandemic going on. Nobody cares about federal deficits either.
Amash also angered many on the right who might have voted for him. He bashed President Trump and even supported efforts to impeach him, which almost all of the GOP agreed was a witch hunt that distracted from more important issues, most notably the Coronavirus pandemic. This was viewed as a total betrayal and if forced at gunpoint to choose between Amash and any Democrat I would vote for the Democrat. His behavior was atrocious and he never seemed to realize that libertarians need to choose between supporting a party that can win or complete annihilation.
As for the left, they already hate him, despite some kind words for him in the past as a useful idiot to be used against President Trump. Amash is trending on Twitter right now and the blue checkmark brigade has turned on him already. They fear, correctly in my opinion, that Amash will draw more voters from Joe Biden than Donald Trump. The only people that Amash would appeal to are libertarians, who aren't voting for either candidate anyways, and the few remaining Never Trump "Republicans" who were going to vote for Biden but might be persuaded to vote for Amash. The Democrats appear to be furious with Amash, which is a big turnaround from his praise when he was attacking President Trump.
Gary Johnson only got 3.28% of a vote in and election that was widely saw as the biggest chance of a 3rd party contender to ever do well. I can't see Amash reaching those levels as President Trump is a known factor and Joe Biden, despite being a pretty bad candidate, isn't hated like Hillary Clinton is. If Amash does actually run I don't see him doing too much.
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