Against Justin Amash

By Zach Kessel

Thursday, January 18, 2024

 

On Thursday morning, a former Republican officeholder made an announcement shaking up the 2024 GOP primary race. 

 

To be more specific, the Michigan Senate primary race.

 

Former congressman Justin Amash, an erstwhile member of the Republican Party who became an independent in 2019 and a registered Libertarian in 2020, declared on X that he is launching an exploratory committee and considering running for the Michigan Senate seat currently held by Democrat Debbie Stabenow, who is not seeking reelection.

 

If he does indeed run, Amash will face off against the likes of former congressmen Peter Meijer and Mike Rogers and former Detroit police chief (and disqualified 2022 gubernatorial candidate) James Craig. And if he does indeed run, Michigan Republicans should look elsewhere.

 

While some conservatives may be willing to look past a few of his libertarian idiosyncrasies, Amash’s foreign-policy isolationism is the last thing America needs as the U.S. stares down growing threats around the world. He has often couched his opposition to deterrent action abroad — like Trump’s Soleimani strike and the recent U.S. retaliation against the Houthis — in technical language about the power of the presidency (and he was wrong on both counts), but the real-world implications of his arguments would have the U.S. project weakness on the international stage. As Biden’s reticence to defend our interests across the globe has demonstrated, American withdrawal only strengthens our adversaries.

 

Amash’s opposition to a confident American presence in the world is a recipe for disaster even in less fraught times. But electing him to the Senate in 2024 — while Iranian proxies target American ships, while a China with expansionary designs plots out its future in the Indo-Pacific — would simply contribute to the ongoing weakening of the United States.