Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Michigan) is the latest victim in former President Donald Trump‘s quest to oust House and Senate Republicans who voted to impeach him after the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Trump has been endorsing GOP challengers to those who didn’t stand by him in the primaries, and Meijer was one of the 10 House Republicans to break with his party.
Meijer, who has represented Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District that covers Grand Rapids since 2021, stood behind his decision to vote for Trump’s impeachment.
“I would rather lose office with my character intact than stay reelected having made sacrifices of the soul,” he said following his defeat on Thursday.
Meijer’s district has also been re-drawn, boosting the Democrats and making it more of a toss-up.
“It’s certainly been a chaotic period and a period where I’ve seen the importance of leadership and the importance of people willing to say this is wrong, but also the heavy political cost that that carries,” Meijer added. “I’m proud of some of my colleagues who have been willing to fall on their swords rather than find ways of excusing or find ways of rationalizing the unacceptable or ignoring the glaring problems that are staring us in the face.
Meijer is now the second Republican to lose his House seat after voting for Trump’s impeachment. Rep. Tom Rice (R-South Carolina) lost back in June. Rep. Liz Cheney(Wyoming), a prominent anti-Trump Republican who co-chairs the House select committee investigating the events before, during and after the Capitol riots, faces a Trump-endorsed challenger later this month.
