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Michigan's representative, Justin Amash, said he had asked social media to do something unusual: explain why he is hurting his party in terms that his constituents can understand.
The 39-year-old Republican, who was the youngest member of the freshman class in 2011, explains his approach succinctly: "I defend freedom and I explain every vote here." The simple formula has turned the libertarian, who entered the House the tea wave, into something of a sensation. In 2012, the independent electoral network described Amash as "the coolest member of Congress".
The latest decision by Amash – to publicly declare that President Trump has conducted an activity worthy of dismissal – could be the most difficult to explain for Republican voters, 9 out of 10 opposing the impeachment, according to a poll conducted by Washington Post-ABC News in April.
His announcement Saturday came after reading the report written by the special advocate Robert S. Mueller III, as explained by the legislator in a long Twitter thread.
And Sunday, he incited a rival from inside the party, Michigan State Representative Jim Lower, to declare that he would run for the Republican primary next year for the Amash headquarters.
Amash, the first Republican to break with the party's line of impeachment, drew contempt from the president. Trump responded by calling the congressman five "loser" and "light weight" mandates.
Meanwhile, the movement has been praised by the Democrats. "You give priority to the country, and it must be congratulated" wrote Rep. Rashida Tlaib from Michigan, attractive Amash co-sponsors his removal resolution.
[GOP lawmaker says Trump’s conduct meets ‘threshold for impeachment’]
Amash has not ruled out the possibility of challenging Trump in 2020 on the Libertarian ticket. Now he has his own challenge.
The state congressional districts must be redrawn by 2020, making its prospects for reelection difficult to assess. The district currently covers Grand Rapids and its suburbs.
Lower announced his challenge to Amash in a statement Sunday.
"I'm a Pro-Trump Republican, Pro-Life, Pro-Jobs, Pro-2nd Amendment, Pro-Family," he said. "Justin Amash's tweets yesterday calling for the removal of President Trump show how disconnected he is from the truth and the contacts he has with the people he represents."
The state legislator, who became county commissioner in 2011 at the age of 21, accused Amash of joining "radical liberals" – naming Tlaib in particular – " to try to bring down our president. " On most issues, a chasm separates Amash from the liberal brandon.
Lower said his candidacy had been under development for two months and that he was planning to announce it around July 4th. He accelerated his schedule in response to Amash tweets. In his announcement, he extolled his roots in the working class, claiming that he had enrolled at the University of Michigan State University and at the Grand Valley Business School. State University working full time.
In an interview with the Washington Post, the state legislator said he had not read Mueller's report "with as much detail as Congressman Amash" but subscribed to Trump's claim that "there was no collusion, no obstruction".
On Sunday, Lower changed his profile picture on Facebook to appear in front of a Trump 2020 banner.
Jim Lower, a representative of the State of Michigan, said on Sunday that he would run for the Republican primary elections for the seat currently held by representative Justin Amash, after the five-mandate congressional member had shared his view that the president had "engaged in impenetrable conduct". (Jim Lower / Facebook)
Amash is held under a different banner. At the top of his Facebook page, he pinned a warning from President George Washington on the "adverse effects" of party loyalty, delivered in his farewell speech in 1796.
The Michigan congressman was born in Grand Rapids and raised in Kentwood, Michigan, by a Palestinian Christian father and a Syrian Christian mother. He attended the University of Michigan College and Law School and briefly worked for his family's business, Tekton Tools, which manufactures handheld instruments, such as screwdrivers.
He served a term at the House of States in Lansing before being elected to Congress in 2010. He ally with uncompromising Conservatives to form the House Freedom Caucus, whose members are mostly in agreement with Trump.
Cluster conservative and libertarian groups, Amash has been confronted only once to a credible primary challenge. He beat his Republican rival, Michigan businessman Brian Ellis, by almost 15 percentage points in 2014. Trump won the district easily in 2016, even overthrowing a county that had been secured by Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.
The survival of the congressman can now depend on whether or not he has cultivated sufficient dedication among the electors to nullify their loyalty to the president. His political outlook looms on Facebook, where he has been trying to convince his constituents that he is accountable to them, while public confidence in the government is plagued by historic lows.
His heterodox movements have been those that require a very careful explanation on social media. He hurts his party by not voting for measures he supports, such as the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline Preservation of Immigration and Customsbecause it does not agree with the underlying legislative approach.
Social media, the same tool used by Trump in 2016 to bypass media and party guardians and address voters directly, could be a bulwark against the president's attacks. This could help to check if Republicans can break with their flag bearer and survive. Each Facebook post, in which voters add comments and ask questions, serves as a miniature, digitized city hall. Amash has more than 136,000 followers on the platform, about one-fifth of the total population aged 16 and over in his district, according to census estimates.
"Social media is revolutionizing the government and empowering Congress," said Amash in 2012, when he became the winner of the Republican New Media Challenge. "I use Facebook to explain every vote I take in the House and personally interact with my constituents online. This not only allows people to live at home, but also makes me a better representative. "
The social networking site has also been a powerful tool for personal branding, allowing Amash to be nicknamed "Mr. No, based on the sobriquet "Dr. No "kissed by Ron Paul, the former Texas congressman, whose lawmaker Michigan shares the philosophy of small government.
Amash uses Facebook to make Star Wars jokes and display his knowledge of emoji. Some of his messages are personal, thanking God for his family or extolling the memory of Friedrich von Hayek, Nobel laureate economist and apostle of the free market.
But above all, he explains his votes "no". No to the action of the executive on immigration. No to Federal aid to Flint, Mich., At the height of the water contamination crisis. No budget plans to keep the government open. No to the National Security Agency's telephone recording card collection.
He even refuses to approve the report of the debates of the House by protesting: "We are never given the time to review the Journal".
On the issue of impeachment, however, Amash responded in the affirmative. The president's conduct was not only consistent with the constitutional standard on impeachment, but the Attorney General, William P. Barr, had "misled the public" about the Special Advocate's findings with respect to the possible "crimes and serious crimes" of Trump.
"While dismissal should only be undertaken under extraordinary circumstances, the risk we face in a climate of great partisanship is not that Congress will use it too often as a solution, but rather that 39 he will use it so rarely that he will not be able to deter misconduct "congressman wrote.
Instantly, voters went to the Congress Member's Facebook to record their positive and negative reactions. In turn, he was hailed as an independent thinker, with the country's best interests in mind, and cast as a returner who only interested the attention.
A professor from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, thanked him for representing the state with "honesty and honor." Another woman wrote, "Thank you very much for the courage to tell the truth.
But he was also told: "You're fired", and a rabid Republican asked him: "Register immediately as a democrat and make your card of man." Several critics have invoked his father's Palestinian heritage to question his loyalty to Trump and the United States.
Amash has not responded yet.
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