Rare News Desk
There’s a liberty candidate running for Congress in Michigan.
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Not just Justin Amash, who seems poised to win the Republican primary on his way to a third term in the House.
Not just Kerry Bentivolio, the Ron Paul Republican who succeeded Thaddeus McCotter.
Tom McMillin is a Republican candidate in Michigan’s 8th district. The retiring incumbent, Mike Rogers, has been described as one the NSA’s biggest defenders. The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is a hawk who has an antagonistic relationship with Justin Amash.
In fact, Rogers has raised money for Amash’s primary opponent. The same event featured California Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, who has described Amash as “al Qaeda’s best friend in Congress.”
Rogers has called civil libertarian journalist Glenn Greenwald “a thief” and suggested that a “foreign power” is behind Edward Snowden’s NSA whistle-blowing.
McMillin is cut from a different cloth. “No data on American citizens should be collected by the federal government without direct consent or a specific warrant,” he has said. He has called for national intelligence director James Clapper to be “prosecuted for lying to Congress about how the federal government is surveilling our citizens without a warrant.”
“We must not fight wars that are not authorized by Congress and that are not in America’s direct interest,” McMillin says. He would also cut foreign aid, arguing individual “up or down votes should be taken for any handout to any country.”
Unlike Rogers, McMillin is an Amash ally. The two worked together in Michigan’s state legislature, where McMillin is currently serving his third term. Amash appears on the front page of McMillin’s congressional campaign website.
McMillin has been a leading proponent of criminal justice reform. He has worked to restrict the use of drones and institute reporting requirements for SWAT teams and asset seizures. He has helped poor criminal defendants get fairer trials.
What I find refreshing about Tom is that, if you say you love the Constitution – as many in the tea party say they do—Tom expects you to respect, promote and uphold every part of the Constitution, not just the parts you agree with. He expects you to be all in,” said one Michigan Republican state legislator.
Sometimes, McMillin’s civil libertarian stands cause him to work with those on the other side of the aisle. He teamed up with the American Civil Liberties Union on reforming the court-appointed lawyers for indigent defendants, for example.
“If you had told me during my Christian Coalition years that I’d be working with the ACLU, I would have called you crazy,” McMillin told a local newspaper.
The lawmaker also shares Amash’s commitment to transparency in government, at both the state and federal level.
McMillin nevertheless remains a strong tea party conservative: passionately pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, and sympathetic to Christian conservatives becoming more involved in the political process.
Although they share the same party label, the married father of three would be a very different congressman than Michigan’s 8th district currently has. But there’s no guarantee the change will happen.
Rogers is supporting Mike Bishop, a Michigan senate majority leader who clearly has the support of the Republican establishment.
Bishop also has the support of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has sparred with the Tea Party in a number of primaries. At least one recent poll showed Bishop leading McMillin.
Some have called the primary a “proxy war” between Rogers and Amash. Certainly, the people who would like to see Amash lose next Tuesday have the same opinion of McMillin.
Conservatives who like to see the Republican Party embrace a more cautious and realistic foreign policy while applying limited-government lessons to criminal justice and civil liberties have good reason to be interested in this primary fight.
The number of Republican politicians embracing this kind of consistent constitutionalism is growing, but their ranks on Capitol Hill still need to be bolstered. The small band of congressional liberty Republicans needs reinforcements.
Is it possible that Michigan, a state that has come through for the liberty movement before and seems poised to do so again, will send yet another liberty Republican to Washington?
Stranger things have happened.
