Amash abandons third-party bid
Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan announced Saturday that he would not pursue the Libertarian Party’s nomination for president, bringing an end to his extended flirtation with a third-party candidacy that could have introduced a new element of uncertainty into the race between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.
Amash, a former Republican who left the party last year after clashing with Trump and later voted to impeach him, explained on Twitter that he believed there were probably insurmountable hurdles to running a successful candidacy this year from outside the two major political parties. Among those challenges, he said, is the difficulty of campaigning and qualifying for the ballot in all 50 states during a pandemic that has brought much of the country’s public life to a halt. He added that it would be difficult to raise money in the middle of a severe economic downturn.
“I continue to believe that a candidate from outside the old parties, offering a vision of government grounded in liberty and equality, can break through in the right environment,” Amash said. “But this environment presents extraordinary challenges.”
Amash, a 40-year-old conservative of Syrian American descent, stirred anxiety across the political spectrum last month when he declared he was formally joining the Libertarian Party to consider a campaign for its 2020 presidential nomination. Republicans feared that he could peel away votes from Trump on the right, and Democrats worried that he would attract disillusioned Republican voters who might otherwise embrace Biden as the only available alternative to Trump.
A poll taken this month by Monmouth University suggested Amash could have started a presidential candidacy that made a small but not insignificant imprint on the campaign. In a two-way race between Trump and Biden, the poll showed Biden ahead by 9 percentage points. With Amash included, Biden led by 7 percentage points.