Justin Amash Biography

Justin Amash is an American attorney and politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Michigan’s 3rd congressional district. He was first elected to U.S Congress in 2010, he previously served in the Michigan House of Representatives representing the 72nd District, which is centered on the city of Kentwood and includes his home in Cascade Township as well as the townships of Caledonia and Gaines.

He is chair of the House Liberty Caucus. He is a libertarian Republican. Politico described him as “one of the most conservative members of Congress.”

Justin Amash Age

Justin Amash was born on 18 April 1980 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States. He is 39 years old as of 2019.

Justin Amash Net worth

Justin Amash earns his income from his businesses and other related organizations. He also earns his income from the Awards industry. He also earns his income from his work as a politician. He has an estimated net worth $ 2 million dollars.

Justin Amash Education

Justin Amash attended Kelloggsville Christian School in Kelloggsville and graduated as class valedictorian from Grand Rapids Christian High School. He graduated from the University of Michigan magna cum laude with a B.A. degree in economics and earned his J.D. degree at the University of Michigan Law School in 2005. He admires economists F. A. Hayek and Frédéric Bastiat.

Justin Amash Family

Justin Amash was born and raised in Kentwood, Michigan. He is the son of a Palestinian Christian father and a Syrian Christian mother. He is an Orthodox Christian in the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America.

His father, Attallah, is a business owner, whose family immigrated to the United States in 1956 through the sponsorship of a Christian pastor and his family. His mother, Mimi, is a Syrian immigrant to the United States.

Justin Amash Wife

Justin Amash married Kara Amash. Justin and Kara were classmates at Grand Rapids Christian High School. Justin was interested in Kara and, during his senior year, promised himself that he would ask her out that day if she walked past his locker. She did, and he invited her to go miniature golfing with him.

They also had a bite to eat at TGI Friday’s. Kara says that she beat Justin at golf that day; she remembers the day as “the only time he ever let me win.” The couple went to different colleges but stayed together. They got married five years later.

Kara graduated from Calvin College and worked as an elementary school teacher before her children were born. She and Justin first met when they were classmates at Grand Rapids Christian High School.

They stayed together through college, with Justin driving home most weekends from Ann Arbor so that they could spend time together. They married five years after they first started dating. Kara and Justin live in Cascade Charter Township with their three children, Alexander, Anwen, and Evelyn.

Justin Amash Image

Justin Amash Michigan House of Representatives

Election

Amash ran for the Michigan House of Representatives in 2008 in Michigan’s 72nd House District. During this time, he donated to the campaigns of Congressman Ron Paul and John McCain. In the Republican primary, he won a five-way election with 41% of the vote, defeating opponent Ken Yonker by 723 votes, a 6.3% margin.

The incumbent, Glenn D. Steil, Jr., was barred from running by term limits. In the general election, Amash defeated Democrat Albert Abbasse 61–36%. On August 3, 2010, Amash won the five-way Republican primary for the seat vacated by retiring Republican Vern Ehlers with over 40% of the vote. He was endorsed by the Club for Growth, Ron Paul, and FreedomWorks PAC during his primary campaign.

In the general election, Amash campaigned on a conservative platform. He defeated Democrat Patrick Miles, Jr. 60–37%. In its October 25, 2010, issue, Time magazine named Amash one of its “40 under 40 – Rising Stars of U.S. Politics”. At age 30 Amash was the youngest federal officeholder in the United States on Time’s list.

Amash won reelection to the U.S. House in 2012, defeating Steve Pestka 53–44%. After initial speculation that he might run for the U.S. Senate, Amash confirmed that he would run for reelection to the House of Representatives in 2014.

Amash was endorsed by the fiscally conservative Club for Growth PAC, which spent over $500,000 supporting Amash in his Republican primary against former East Grand Rapids School Trustee Brian Ellis, who was endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and spent more than $1 million of his own money on the race.

After Amash defeated Ellis in the August primary, with 57% of the vote to Ellis’s 43%, Amash was highly critical of Ellis and former Congressman Pete Hoekstra, who had backed Ellis. Of Hoekstra, Amash said, “You are a disgrace.

And I’m glad we could hand you one more loss before you fade into total obscurity and irrelevance.” Amash took exception to one of Ellis’s television ads that quoted California Republican Congressman Devin Nunes calling Amash “Al Qaeda’s best friend in Congress”; he demanded an apology from Ellis for running what he called a “disgusting, despicable smear campaign.”

As Friedersdorf of The Atlantic notes, “Amash voted against the reauthorization of the Patriot Act, favored a measure to repeal indefinite detention, and opposed reauthorization of the FISA Amendments Act.” In the general election, Amash defeated Democrat Bob Goodrich and Green Party candidate Tonya Duncan with 58% of the vote.

During the 2016 Amash won reelection to the U.S. House in 2016 for his fourth term, defeating Democrat Douglas Smith 59–38%. Taxpayers Party candidate Ted Gerrard finished with 3%. During the 2018 elections, she won reelection to the U.S. House in 2018 for his fifth term, defeating Cathy Albro, 54–43%. U.S. Taxpayers party candidate Ted Gerrard finished 3rd with 2.4% of the vote. Amash was unopposed in the Republican primary.

Political positions

Amash is a libertarian Republican. Politico described him as “one of the most conservative members of Congress.”

Abortion

Amash is pro-life. He opposes abortion and the use of federal funding for abortion. He voted “present” rather than “yes” or “no” on the 2011 Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, which provided for the cessation of federal funding to Planned Parenthood.

He explained, “Legislation that names a specific private organization to defund (rather than all organizations that engage in a particular activity) is improper and arguably unconstitutional”.

When The New York Times asked him to explain his approach to voting on legislation, he replied, “I follow a set of principles, I follow the Constitution. And that’s what I base my votes on. Limited government, economic freedom, and individual liberty.”

Economic issues

Amash supports free markets with limited government regulation. He advocates for economic freedom and believes that stimulus programs and government bailouts are ineffective ways to energize the economy.

He supports adopting a flat tax in lieu of targeted tax breaks and subsidies. Amash opposes central economic planning, which he believes contributes to unemployment, inflation, and unstable business cycles.

He was one of four Republicans who joined 161 Democrats to oppose a Constitutional amendment that would require a yearly balanced budget, due to serious concerns with that specific proposal. Earlier that year, Amash had introduced H.J. Res. 81, an alternative balanced budget amendment that addressed those concerns.

Energy

Amash supports decreased federal intervention in energy-related issues. He wants to eliminate government-sponsored subsidies for energy production and decrease overall regulation.

He believes that no form of energy production should be specially favored or restricted. In addition, Amash supports minimizing federal environmental regulations.

He voted in favor of the Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011, which would have amended the Clean Air Act of 1963 to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating specified greenhouse gasses as air pollutants.

Flint water crisis

Amash was the only representative from Michigan to oppose federal aid in response to the Flint water crisis, arguing that “the U.S. Constitution does not authorize the federal government to intervene in an intrastate matter like this one.” Instead, Amash contended that “the State of Michigan should provide comprehensive assistance to the people of Flint.”

Foreign affairs

Amash supports decreasing U.S. military spending and believes there is a significant waste in the military spending of the U.S. Department of Defense. He believes only Congress has the power to declare war, criticizing President Obama’s military intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and intervention in Syria, for proceeding without a Congressional declaration of war.

In 2011 Amash was one of six members of Congress who voted against House Resolution 268 reaffirming U.S. commitment to a negotiated settlement of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict through direct Israeli–Palestinian negotiation, which passed with 407 members in support. In 2014 he was one of eight members of Congress who voted against a $225 million package to restock Israel’s Iron Dome missile defenses, which passed with 398 members in support.

He supports a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Amash joined 104 Democrats and 16 Republicans in voting against the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which specified the budget and expenditures of the Department of Defense, calling it “one of the most anti-liberty pieces of legislation of our lifetime”.

Amash co-sponsored an amendment to the NDAA that would ban indefinite military detention and military trials so that all terror suspects arrested in the United States would be tried in civilian courts. He expressed concern that individuals charged with terrorism could be jailed for prolonged periods of time without ever being formally charged or brought to trial.

On March 14, 2016, Amash joined the unanimous vote in the House to approve a resolution declaring the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to be committing genocide against religious minorities in the Middle East (it passed 383–0), but joined Representatives Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) in voting against a separate measure creating an international tribunal to try those accused of participating in the alleged atrocities (it passed 392–3).

In 2017 Amash criticized U.S. involvement in Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen, arguing that “Al Qaeda in Yemen has emerged as a de facto ally of the Saudi-led militaries with whom [Trump] administration aims to partner more closely.”

In July 2017 Amash joined Representatives Thomas Massie (R-KY) and John Duncan Jr. (R-TN) and Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in opposing a bill that would impose new economic sanctions against Russia, Iran, and North Korea. President Trump opposed the bill, pointing out that relations with Russia were already “at an all-time and dangerous low”, but ultimately signed it.

In 2019 Amash signed a letter led by Representative Ro Khanna and Senator Rand Paul to Trump asserting that it is “long past time to rein in the use of force that goes beyond congressional authorization” and that they hoped this would “serve as a model for ending hostilities in the future – in particular, as you and your administration seek a political solution to our involvement in Afghanistan.”

Gerrymandering

Amash has expressed opposition to political gerrymandering. He said in 2018, “I firmly believe there should be an independent process for drawing districts. They should be based on geographic considerations, and they should be as compact and contiguous as possible. I always felt the maps should be drawn in a way that is less political and more based on geographic considerations.” As of February 2019, Amash was the only member of Michigan’s GOP congressional delegation who was not fighting a federal lawsuit challenging the state’s political boundaries.

Health care

On May 4, 2017, Amash voted in favor of repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and to pass a revised version of the American Health Care Act. Amash initially opposed the American Health Care Act, describing it as “Swampcare”, tweeting that “It didn’t take long for the swamp to drain @realDonaldTrump” and criticizing House leadership for attempting to “ram it through.” Nevertheless, Amash voted for the updated AHCA plan before the Congressional Budget Office could determine its impact or cost.

Immigration

In July 2018 House Republicans introduced a resolution supporting the officers and personnel of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Amash was the only Republican in the chamber to vote against the resolution. He tweeted, “The House voted today on an inane resolution regarding ICE. The resolution makes several dubious claims and denounces calls to abolish ICE. I wouldn’t abolish ICE without an alternative, but there’s no reason to treat a federal agency as though it’s beyond reproach and reform.”

In December 2018 Amash was one of eight House Republicans to vote against a stopgap government funding bill that included $5.7 billion in border wall funding. Amash tweeted, “This massive, wasteful spending bill-stuffed with unrelated items passed 217–185. It’s amazing how some wall funding causes my fellow Republicans to embrace big government.”

In February 2019 Amash was the only House Republican to co-sponsor a resolution blocking Trump’s national emergency declaration seeking additional funds to build physical barriers on the southern border. He tweeted, “A national emergency declaration for a non-emergency is void. A prerequisite for declaring an emergency is that the situation requires immediate action and Congress does not have an opportunity to act. @POTUS @realDonaldTrump is attempting to circumvent our constitutional system.” On February 25 Amash was one of 13 House Republicans to vote to block Trump’s declaration.

Marijuana legalization and forfeiture

Amash and fellow U.S. Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA) introduced a bill to block the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from financing its Cannabis Eradication Program through civil asset forfeitures.

According to a DEA performance budget submitted to Congress for the fiscal year (FY) 2014, the DEA received $18 million in FY 2013 funding for cannabis eradication from the Department of Justice’s Asset Forfeiture Fund. He took aim at civil asset forfeiture in a statement, saying that the practice allows for “innocent people to have their property taken without sufficient due process”.

Amash co-sponsored H.R. 1227, also known as the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2017. The bill was introduced by U.S. Representative Thomas Garrett (R-VA).

Same-sex marriage

Amash supported a repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, saying that the “real threat” to traditional marriage and religious liberty is government, not gay couples.

Security and surveillance

Amash has been a frequent critic on the National Security Agency’s anti-terrorism surveillance programs. He voted against the 2011 reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT Act, the 2012 reauthorization of the FISA Amendments Act, and the USA Freedom Act.

In 2013, Amash and other 15 members of Congress filed an amicus brief in Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court supporting the release of the Court’s unpublished opinions regarding the “meaning, scope, and constitutionality” of Section 215 of the Patriot Act.

He opposed President Donald Trump’s 2017 executive order to temporarily curtail Muslim immigration until better screening methods are devised. He stated: “Like President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, President Trump’s executive order overreaches and undermines our constitutional system.”

He proposed an amendment to the reauthorization bill of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The Amash amendment would have required the government in criminal cases to seek a warrant based on probable cause before searching surveillance data for information about Americans.

While the Amash amendment received bipartisan support as well as support from civil liberties groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, the amendment ultimately failed by a vote of 183 to 233.

Suicide prevention hotline

In July 2018 Amash was the only member of the U.S. House to vote against creating a three-digit suicide prevention hotline. He wrote on Twitter, “It’s another good idea without a constitutional basis. I swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution, and I take that oath seriously. Constitutional limits are meaningless if we ignore them whenever we like the policy outcome.”

Endorsements

Amash endorsed Ron Paul for president in 2012. Paul’s brother, David, was an assistant pastor in Amash’s district and endorsed Amash, saying the Michigan congressman shares common ground with Paul. He endorsed Paul’s son, Senator Rand Paul, for president in 2016. After Paul dropped out of the Republican primary race, Amash endorsed Senator Ted Cruz in his bid for the presidency.

Justin Amash Donald Trump

In 2016 Amash made headlines by joining the list of Republicans who opposed the GOP nominee for President, Donald Trump. After Trump was elected president, the Huffington Post profiled him in an article with the following title, “The One House Republican Who Can’t Stop Criticizing Donald Trump.” Amash said, “I’m not here to represent a particular political party; I’m here to represent all of my constituents and to follow the Constitution.”

On January 14, 2017, Trump sent out a series of tweets criticizing Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), one of the main leaders in the 1960s civil rights movement. Amash responded to Trump’s tweets with one of his own: “Dude, just stop.”

On April 1, 2017, senior White House aide Dan Scavino tweeted that Amash was “a big liability” and urged followers to “defeat him in the primary.” Amash later referred to Trump as a “childish bully,” saying that his attacks would be “constructive in the fifth grade. It may allow a child to get his way, but that’s not how our government works.”

In May 2017 Trump was accused of pressuring fired FBI director James Comey to end an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Amash was reported as the first Republican congressman to publicly state that the allegations if proven true, merited impeachment. This report is contested by the office of Representative Carlos Curbelo, who claims that he was the first to say that.

In June 2018 the Huffington Post asked House Republicans, “If the president pardoned himself, would they support impeachment?” Amash was the only Republican who said: “definitively he would support impeachment”.

In July 2018 Amash strongly criticized Trump’s press conference with Russian president Vladimir Putin. He tweeted, “The impression it left on me, a strong supporter of the meeting, is that ‘something is not right here.’ The president went out of his way to appear subordinate. He spoke more like the head of a vassal state.”

When Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen testified before the House Oversight Committee on February 27, 2019, Amash asked him, “What is the truth President Trump is most afraid of people knowing?” Democrat Krystal Ball wrote, ”

Amash showed how someone actually can exercise oversight responsibility and try to get to the truth, even if the truth might not be in his party’s short-term best interest.” CNN editor Chris Cillizza wrote, “The Michigan Republican did something on Wednesday that almost none of his GOP colleagues seemed willing to even try:

Ask Cohen questions about his relationship with Trump that might actually shed some new light on not only their relationship but on the President of the United States.”

In May 2019 Amash said that Trump “has engaged in impeachable conduct” based on the obstruction of justice findings of the Mueller Report, which, Amash said, “few members of Congress have read.”

He said that Attorney General William Barr “deliberately misrepresented” the report’s findings and that partisanship was making it hard to maintain checks and balances in the American political system.

He was the first Republican member of Congress to call for Trump’s impeachment. In response, Trump called Amash a “loser”, accused him of “getting his name out there through controversy,” and falsely stated that the Mueller report had concluded that there was no obstruction of justice.

Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, accused Amash of “parroting the Democrats’ talking points on Russia.” She did not explicitly express support for a primary challenge against Amash, but tweeted, “voters in Amash’s district strongly support this president.” Republican Senator Mitt Romney described Amash’s statement as “courageous.”

Justin Amash Committee assignments

115th Congress

• Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
  • Subcommittee on Information Technology
  • Subcommittee on National Security

114th Congress

• Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
  • Subcommittee on National Security
• Joint Economic Committee

113th Congress

• Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
  • Subcommittee on Government Operations
  • Subcommittee on National Security
• Joint Economic Committee

112th Congress

• Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
  • Subcommittee on Government Organization, Efficiency and Financial Management
  • Subcommittee on TARP, Financial Services, and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs
• Joint Economic Committee
• Committee on the Budget

Justin Amash and Israel

The High Court has rejected a petition from left-wing organization Ir Amim to move the route of a nationalist march to mark Jerusalem Day on June 2. The Flag March is an annual parade which passes through the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City to mark the city’s liberation in 1967. The march is usually attended by far-right activists and the Muslim Quarter route has been the source of tensions in the past.

Shopkeepers are usually told to close early and residents are made to stay at home as flag-waving nationalists march by. Ir Amim had argued that tensions would be heightened because of the overlap with the last days of Ramadan, slated to end June 5. In their decision, the judges note that police have committed to keep order during the march and say Ir Amim does not have to stand in the case to file a petition for an injunction.

Justin Amash Border wall

Amash joins more than 900 former federal prosecutors, from both Republican and Democratic administrations, who believe Trump’s behavior, as outlined by Mueller, would have resulted in “multiple felony charges for obstruction of justice” were he a private citizen and not the president of the United States. Conservative law professor J.W. Verret, a former member of the Trump transition team, has written how the “elaborate pattern of obstruction” uncovered by the report is, at a minimum, enough “to get the impeachment process started.”

Plenty of liberals are asking why there aren’t more Republican members of Congress with the guts, eloquence, or honesty to say what Amash has said. It’s a good question. But a better, more relevant question is this: Why aren’t there more Democrats willing to say the same?

After all, the two most senior members of the House Democratic leadership Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer — as well as key Democratic committee chairs, such as Jerrold Nadler and Adam Schiff, have spent the past few weeks loudly and repeatedly throwing cold water on the idea of impeaching Trump. Pelosi has called impeachment “divisive” and “not worth it.”

Hoyer, on the day the Mueller report was released and before he had even read it, said, “Going forward on impeachment is not worthwhile at this point.” Last week, in the wake of the Trump administration’s decision to defy congressional subpoenas, Nadler told CNBC: “I don’t want to make it sound as if we’re heading for impeachment. Probably we’re not.”

What is wrong with these people? Why are they so afraid of their own shadows? Pelosi told CNN after last November’s midterms that impeachment should be done in a “bipartisan way.” Well, Amash is a Republican and one of the most conservative members of the House. So it’s bipartisan now. In fact, a few other Republicans might throw their weight behind impeachment too — if Pelosi & Co. can be bothered to hold the hearings, make the case, and call a vote.

Justin Amash on Donald Trump

Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan said Saturday that President Donald Trump“engaged in impeachable conduct” by committing obstruction of justice, breaking ranks with a Republican Party that has rallied to the president’s defense in the wake of Robert Mueller’s findings in the Russia investigation.

Amash also accused Attorney General William Barr of “deliberately” misrepresenting the Mueller report and misleading the public through “sleight-of-hand.”

In a series of posts on Twitter, Amash criticized members of Congress for being overly partisan and not upholding their constitutional duty, saying very few members had actually read Mueller’s full report. He warned that partisanship risked eroding the nation’s system of constitutional checks and balances.

The Republican representative, a libertarian who often goes against the grain of his party, said he came to the conclusion that Trump committed obstruction of justice after carefully reading the special counsel’s full redacted report.

Amash said Mueller’s report found multiple instances of Trump engaging in obstruction of justice and if he wasn’t president, he would face indictment based on such evidence.  Amash said that impeachment “simply requires a finding that an official has engaged in careless, abusive, corrupt, or otherwise dishonorable conduct.”

He also warned that Congress risked encouraging misconduct by shrinking from the impeachment process.  Amash’s call for impeachment goes further than even many Democrats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for example, has repeatedly said that she does not currently support impeachment because it would only divide the country.

Justin Amash Twitter

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