(FiveNation.com)- Last week, Michigan Republican Congressman Fred Upton announced that he was retiring from office rather than face the prospect of running against a fellow Republican incumbent now that Michigan’s congressional district map has been redrawn.
Michigan’s new congressional map effectively merged two Republican-held seats into one and would have forced Upton to run against his Republican colleague, Congressman Bill Huizenga.
According to sources familiar with Michigan politics, Upton decided to retire rather than run against Huizenga because Fred Upton, one of the ten Republican House members who voted to impeach former President Trump last year, was headed for a certain defeat.
According to Bill Ballenger, the editor of the Ballenger Report which covers Michigan politics, internal polling revealed that Fred Upton was “getting clobbered” by Bill Huizenga.
It is undeniable that Congressman Huizenga is the far more conservative choice for Republican voters. And since former President Trump has vowed revenge on the ten Republican House members who voted to impeach him, Huizenga quickly received Trump’s “complete and total endorsement” in the match-up.
On hearing that Upton was retiring, the former president released a statement to take a victory lap over the news, excitedly reporting “UPTON QUITS! 4 down and 6 to go.”
Before Michigan’s redistricting map changed the playing field, Trump had endorsed Upton’s primary challenger Michigan State Rep. Steve Carra. But after the new redistricting map was approved, Trump switched his endorsement to Huizenga in March, prompting Carra to drop out of the race and throw his support behind Congressman Huizenga.
Fred Upton is the fourth pro-impeachment Republican to announce he would not seek re-election. Ohio Republican Anthony Gonzalez, New York Republican John Katko, and Illinois’s weepy Adam Kinzinger also opted against running for re-election in 2022.
The other six who voted to impeach Trump are now facing primary challengers, five of whom have received former President Trump’s endorsement.
