I'M DIFFERENT, YEAH, I'M DIFFERENT! HOW I AM 99% A SINGLE-MINDED SEEKER OF RE-ELECTION

MAYHEW IS WRONG! 

(In one instance, but right every other time)

So there is this guy who thinks he is right about everything I do being so I can get re-elected, named Mayhew.  According to him I am a single-minded seeker of re-election, and my actions can be classified into three categories:

ADVERTISING

POSITION TAKING

CREDIT CLAIMING

Okay, I am guilty of doing these pretty much all of the time, BUT there is one instance where I think I outsmarted this guy.

David Mayhew, or ripoff Bernie Sanders, you decide.

Unfortunately you will have to wait until the end to figure out how I outsmarted him.

ADVERTISING

I, Justin Amash, will readily admit I am pretty terrible at this.  I usually do not post unless it is extremely political.  One tweet I am proud of is me signing my oath of office.  It is not political at all, and it shows you I take my job seriously.

So serious that I had someone uncomfortably take this over my shoulder

Another wonderful example is my Christmas Card. you can see that tweet here

POSITION TAKING

I take some pretty tough positions.  One of my biggest stands is I am a Republican against Donald Trump.  I do not believe he is fit to be a President.  I have been called the 'Leading Critic of Donald Trump in the GOP' (here).

Some other of my stronger positions is that I am a Libertarian.  I make sure people know also.  I have sponsored a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

Also I was opposed to the Patriot Act and wanted to repeal it.

Coincidentally, this is the cover of our newest mixtape, dropping soon 

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

CREDIT CLAIMING

I WILL TELL EVERYONE ABOUT EVERYTHING I DO!

I am going to link you to four lovely examples of credit claiming by yours truly.

1. I sent a letter to President Obama requesting an investigation to Trump's election ties with Russia and potential interfering of Russia in our election (READ ABOUT IT HERE)

2. I sent out a press release talking about how I am hosting a service night for high schoolers, so they can learn about the armed services (READ ABOUT IT HERE)

3. Another press release, another dollar.  I would like to take this opportunity to tell you all how I am the most fiscally responsible person here. (READ ABOUT IT HERE)

4. Lastly, and the most important.  I am taking credit for Jim Harbaugh.....coming to the State of the Union.  (READ ABOUT IT HERE)

I even made him change out of his khakis

Okay so you want to know how I am proving Mayhew wrong eh?  Well, I am hosting town halls across my districts.  I know this seems like it could be credit claiming, but let me explain why it is not.  I am a Republican who has a reasonably safe seat.  I am against Trump.  The town halls could be filled with angry Dems, or angry people in general.  I could say something terrible accidentally.  I am sitting really well in my position, the risk is really high of me getting caught out on a bad question, or a fumble of words.  If all I was thinking about was re-election, I would not do these town halls.  Too many things can go wrong, especially when I am sitting so high right now.  I think that me doing many town halls speaks to my principles of seeing and talking to my constituents.  many other Republicans are not hosting town halls because they can hurt more then they can help, but not me.  If you think I am wrong, feel free to tell me at my next town hall!

ELECTIONS! ELECTIONS! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Past Elections

I don't mean to brag, but I HAVE NEVER LOST AN ELECTION. PERIOD.

Seriously, this face has never lost....ever.

2010, my first race for the US House of Representatives.  I ran against 5 people and still came away with 59.7% of the vote.  Ever since that race, I have won by at least 8% or more.  Now here is where I bore you with tables so you can see how awesome I am in every election. (You can find the lovely graphs in this post here on Ballotpedia)

[hide]U.S. House, Michigan District 3 General Election, 2010
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Justin Amash	59.7%	133,714
	Democratic	Pat Miles	37.5%	83,953
	Libertarian	James Rogers	1.2%	2,677
	U.S. Taxpayers	Ted Gerrard	1%	2,144
	Green	Charlie Shick	0.7%	1,575
Total Votes				224,063

U.S. House, Michigan District 3 General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Steve Pestka	44.2%	144,108
	Republican	Justin Amash Incumbent	52.6%	171,675
	Libertarian	Bill Gelineau	3.2%	10,498
	Write-in	Steven Butler	0%	2
Total Votes				326,283

Even though I am a Libertarian at heart, Bill Gelineau tried to beat me at my own game and kicked his ass (ass you can see).

U.S. House, Michigan District 3 General Election, 2014
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Justin Amash Incumbent	57.9%	125,754
	Democratic	Bob Goodrich	39%	84,720
	Green	Tonya Duncan	3.1%	6,691
Total Votes				217,165

The Most Recent Election

As you all already know, I won the 2016 Election against Douglas Smith and Ted Gerrard.  I won with 59.5% of the votes in the election that had the highest turnout ever for Michigan's Third District.

U.S. House, Michigan District 3 General Election, 2016
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Justin Amash Incumbent	59.5%	203,545
	Democratic	Douglas Smith	37.5%	128,400
	U.S. Taxpayers	Ted Gerrard	3%	10,420
Total Votes				342,365

The Challengers

Douglas Smith - Democrat

Douglas Ran against me in the 2016 general election.  Dougie ran on a really democratic platform that includes pro-choice, increase in Medicaid, fighting big money, and overturning Citizens United.  I will be honest in saying that Douglas really never had a chance, especially in the money department.  He raised just over $30,000, whereas I, Justin Amash, raised over $674,000.

Total Raised and Spent

Candidate	Raised	Spent	Cash on Hand	Last Report
Justin Amash (R) *	$674,288	$785,478	$217,637	December 31, 2016
Douglas Smith (D)	$30,185	$26,311	$3,874	December 31, 2016
Theodore Gerrard (3)	$0	$0	$0	--

This graph is from Opensecrets.org

Ted Gerrard - U.S. Taxpayers Party of Michigan

Ted Gerrard ran under the U.S. Taxpayers Party.  Some of the platform for this party is as follows:

1. Abortion / Sanctity of Life: Life begins at conception and ends at natural death.
2. Taxes and Spending: Reduce all Federal, State and local taxes in Michigan.
3. Restitution instead of Incarceration.
4. Ballot Access: Simplify the requirements for a party to get on the ballot.
5. Re-establish a part-time legislature in Michigan.

To read more, you can go to their party page

Ted Gerrard has a wonderful Facebook page where he has not updated since 2011.  One of my favorite posts is this, where he has 5 spelling errors.  If you feel like looking at more posts, go here.

THE DEBATE!

I debated both Smith and Gerrard, and the biggest issue that came up was my voting record.  I voted against a package for Flint. MI, because it limited the aid to only certain counties, not all that needed it.  You cannot even find a video about this debate, it was really low key.

I actually debated these goons (read about it here)

THE 2018 ELECTION

The next election is always around the corner, and I am running again in 2018!  So far there is nobody that is opposing me, but I would not be surprised if the Democrats put someone up against me, maybe even Douglas Smith again!  It is a safe bet that this seat will belong to me in 2018.

My Beautiful District

The Greatest District in the United States:
The Third Congressional District of Michigan

Demographics

Population: 730,423

Age Breakdown: 0-17:  177,502
                        18-64: 451,984
                           65+: 100,937

Race Breakdown:    White: 612,470
 Black or African American: 59,996
                                Asian: 15,325
                               Other: 42,632

Immigration: Native to USA: 691,887
                      Foreign Born: 38,536

Median Household Income: $53,861

Median House Value: $142,800

Education: Population over 25 with high school degree or higher: 90.6%
                               Population Over 25 with bachelors or higher: 30.2%
all data is from here

Geography

Michigan's beautiful Third Congressional District is home to the counties of Ionia, Barry, and Calhoun counties, along with parts of Kent and Montcalm counties.  The largest cities of the beauty includes Grand Rapids (192,294 people) and Battle Creek (51,848 people), but this district also contains little gems like Clarksville (399 people).

No seriously, this is all of Clarksville, there is nothing more.

Politics

Although some states are lucky enough to have political party breakdown by congressional district, Michigan is not one of these states.  I am not blaming anyone at all, but the Secretary of State of California has this data readily available, unlike our Secretary of State Ruth Johnson.  If you believe each state should have this information for everyone, feel free to send a comment to our lazy Secretary of State Ruth Johnson here.

Secretary of Not Enough Stats Available Ruth Johnson

The Third Congressional District has had a Republican Representative since 1990, and to give you an idea of the Democratic activity in this district, in 2012 the Democratic Primary a whopping 22,781 people voted.  This district has voted for the Republican Nominee for President every single time since 1992.

Election results from presidential races
Year	Office	Results
1992	President	Bush 46 - 34%
1996	President	Dole 53 - 39%
2000	President	Bush 60 - 38%
2004	President	Bush 59 - 40%
2008	President	McCain 49 - 48%
2012	President	Romney 53 - 46%
2016	President	Trump 52 - 42%

data from here

more to come about elections in my next post.... :)

Justin Amash

Serving the Third Congressional District of Michigan

Biographical Information - View Justin Amash's full biography here

Born: April 18th, 1980 (Currently 36 years old)

Residence: Born in Grand Rapids, MI, and raised in Kentwood, MI, Representative Amash currently lives in Cascade Township, Michigan.

Education:  Representative Amash received his Bachelors in Economics from the University of Michigan, where he continued his education and received his juris doctor from the University of Michigan Law School in 2005.

Family: Representative Amash was born to Attallah and Mimi Amash in 1980.  Attallah is a Palestinian business owner and immigrant, while Mimi immigrated from Syria.  Representative Amash is currently married to Kara Amash, and has three children, Alexander, Anwen, and Evelyn.

Fun Facts:  Representative Amash has never missed a roll call vote in the State House of Representatives or the US House of Representatives.  Also, Rep. Amash is the seventh youngest Representative currently serving.  Rep. Amash posts all of his votes on Facebook, along with a explanation of why he voted that way. Link to Rep. Amash's Facebook Page

Religion: Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch

Political Career:  After Law School, Rep. Amash went to work for the family tool business as a corporate lawyer.  Only three short years after grad school, Rep. Amash was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in 2008, representing the 72nd District.  He beat his Democrat opposition by over 12,000 votes (approx 60% of the votes) (View Rep. Amash's 2008 electoral win here). After two short years in Michigan's House of Representatives, Rep. Amash ran for the vacant Third District seat in the US House of Representatives, beating his Democratic opponent 60% to 37%.  Since the win in 2010, Rep. Amash has won reelection three times, beating his opponent by at least 8% every single time. (Michigan's Third District 2012, 2014, and 2016 election results)

Political Party: Republican, and is the leader of the House Liberty Caucus.

Committee Assignments: -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
-United States Congress Joint Economic Committee
-Rep. Amash was removed from the House Budget Committee in 2012 for not working well with others. (Link to Politico story about his removal)

Third Congressional District of Michigan

The Third Congressional District is home Grand Rapids, MI.  The district includes Ionia, Barry, and Calhoun counties, along with parts of Kent and Montcalm counties.

Population: 709,467

Gender: 50.7% Female, 49.3% Male

Race: 84.8% White, 9% Black, 1.3% Asian

Unemployment: 11.4%

Median Household Income: $48,010

Graduation Rates:  High school - 89.5%  College - 27.2%

(you can find the data above here)