A pro-Trump state lawmaker in his second term said Monday he plans to challenge U.S. Rep. Justin Amash in the Republican primary in 2020, saying the West Michigan congressman is “out of touch” with his district.
Rep. Jim Lower’s announcement came after Amash, a vocal Trump critic, declared Saturday that he believes President Donald Trump’s conduct has met the “threshold of impeachment.”
Amash, a fifth-term congressman, is the first Republican lawmaker in Congress to break with Trump over the findings of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
Lower, a Cedar Lake Republican and former Amash supporter, was planning to launch his campaign around the Fourth of July. But he adjusted his timetable after Amash’s statements on impeachment, which he said could not stand.