Michigan's third congressional district encompasses most of Michigan's Barry, Ionia, and Kent counties... the latter being the location of Grand Rapids, Michigan's second largest city. The district was represented by Republican Vern Ehlers from 1993 to the present, but Vern announced his retirement some months ago as you may recall. Ehlers was more or less as useless as anyone else in the House Republican caucus, but as a former professor he was scientifically literate and had a better than average GOP record on environmental legislation. The district has a Cook PVI of R+6.
There were three serious contenders for the Republican nomination to replace Ehlers. They were:
• Longtime local businessman Steve Heacock, Mainstream Republican
• Term-limited State Senator Bill Hardiman, Mainstream Republican
• FIRST TERM State House member Justin Amash - Son of a wealthy businessman and batshit crazy Ron Paulite who voted to continue allowing sex offenders to receive government grants because he didn't have time to read the whole bill.
There were also a couple other names but one of these three was going to win, and it ended up being Justin Amash... and not by just a little.
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