Up North Progressive

The primary election is behind us. The candidates who made the cut have a moment to celebrate and prepare for the race on November 4. The losers of a race for political office traditionally call the winner and congratulate them, and the winner thanks them. From there, the candidate who lost supports the winning candidate so their party can win the general election.

Unless you’re Justin Amash.

Justin Amash is the US Representative that refused to accept the concession call from Brian Ellis when he won his primary, and instead used his victory speech to eviscerate his opponent for having the audacity to call him. Amash told the crowd as well as Ellis, “I ran for office to stop people like you.” He also used the speech to call Pete Hoekstra a disgrace for appearing in a TV ad for Ellis.

Amash is a good example of how to run a campaign wrong. He won the primary, but people remember a candidate’s behavior, especially when he burns bridges with other politicians. He was primaried for this election because he’s unpopular, he just reminded all of the people who voted against him why they voted against him.

Democratic candidates also had a few primary races. At least one candidate obviously was not really a Democrat but ran to pull votes away from the candidate who did have the support of the party. The good thing is, the Democratic candidates won, and did so gracefully. The candidates who lost also were graceful and professional in conceding defeat.

This is really important in political races because once the primary is over, and even if mudslinging happened between the two candidates, it’s important to have the support of your party to win the general election. A great example of this was Chris LaMarche, who ran against Christopher Germain in the 38th state senate district in the western Upper Peninsula. LaMarche very narrowly lost, but he congratulated Germain for winning and thanked everyone who supported him. Chris LaMarche is 22 and already shows better adult behavior than Justin Amash. I look forward to seeing more of Chris LaMarche in the future.

Christopher Germain is now the candidate to win the 38th state senate race, and already he has other Democratic state senators helping his campaign.

Working together and supporting candidates is part of building a strong political party that wins elections. The Democratic party is already way ahead of the game and on their way to victory in November. .