A statement on the social network X Friday said that former Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) has dropped his run for the Senate.
“Today, after much prayer and thought, I took my name off the primary ballot,” Meiijer said in the statement. “If this campaign doesn’t have a strong path to victory, it only makes a contentious primary more likely, which would take attention away from the main goal, which is for conservatives to win in November.”
Meijer ran for the Senate in November to replace Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who dropped out after the riot in the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and voted to impeach Pres. Trump. After the riot in the Capitol, he was one of 10 Republicans in the House who voted to remove the president from office.
Meijer said in a statement on X, “I am deeply humbled by the support our campaign has received. I am grateful to those who gave their time and resources to get us to this point and to the thousands of Michiganders I met on the campaign trail who inspired me.”
He had a disagreement with the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which is the campaign arm of the Senate GOP, over his run for the Senate post. The NRSC tried to get former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) to run for office.
An NRSC spokesman, Jason Thielman, said, “Peter Meijer isn’t going to win a primary election, and there’s concern that if he were nominated, the base wouldn’t be excited about the general election.”
It wasn’t a surprise to Meijer’s team that DC Republicans want someone who won’t make waves and will do what they’re told, as they said in a statement to The Hill. I’m not that person.
“Call me old-fashioned, but I care more about what people in Michigan think.” NRSC says in private that they’d rather have a moderate… that’s fine. That’s also not me. It also said, “I’m a constitutionalist conservative.”
Following the news on Friday, Trump took a shot at both Meijer and Rep. Dan Newhouse (Wash.), a Republican who voted to remove Trump from office after the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“Well done, all you good Republicans! People thought Peter Meijer would do very well in politics in the future; he just dropped out of the Senate race in the Great State of Michigan, Trump wrote on Truth Social. Meijer was one of the 10 people who impeached your favorite president.
“Once he raised his very small and delicate hand to impeach President Trump, that was the end of his political career!” the former president said. “The last time, he lost the primary to a nice but unknown person. This time, he lost to Mike Rogers, a GREAT candidate who will easily win the nomination and go on to win the Senate BIG in Michigan.”
“Happily, the 10 Impeachers are just about gone,” he said. The next race is in Washington State for Newhouse. Vote for Jerry Sessler!”
