The wealthy and politically powerful family of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has announced it will no longer support Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), the first Republican in Congress to call for President Donald Trump’s impeachment. But the family dubiously claimed that the decision was not due to Amash’s recent call for Trump’s impeachment.
“DeVos family members have not made campaign contributions to Congressman Amash during this political cycle and based on earlier discussions have no plans to do so,” a spokesperson for the family, Nick Wasmiller, told several outlets. “Family members have expressed increasing concerns about a lack of representation for their district, the Third Congressional, and I would say an inability to advance efforts connected to important policy matters.”
“Recent statements by Amash,” Wasmiller insisted, “have not changed the family’s thinking regarding its intention to provide future support.”
The Detroit News noted that Wasmiller, who works for the Devos-controlled RDV Corporation, was speaking for members of the family other than the education secretary herself.
The DeVos family, a deep-pocketed group of political kingmakers among the Michigan Republican establishment, is hardly alone in condemning Amash: so did House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Republican Party Chair Ronna McDaniel, the House Freedom Caucus, and of course, the President himself. Amash even got a primary challenger out of it, who called the congressman’s support for impeachment “out of touch” with “the truth” and the “people he represents.”
The DeVos family funded Amash’s campaign when he had a primary challenger in 2014 — donating a combined $65,000, per public FEC records tallied by the Detroit News — but that won’t be the case this year.
