Livonia Rep. Thaddeus McCotter told The Detroit News this afternoon he is leaving the race for the Republican presidential nomination after he failed to win access to the Republican presidential debates.
"If they keep you out of the debates, you are out of the conversation and you can't run," McCotter said. "It was sort of death by media."
McCotter said he will give his support to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Michigan native, and will likely run again for the 11th District congressional seat he's held since 2003.
McCotter said he would back Romney after the Massachusetts governor made it clear he wouldn't seek a federal health care overhaul like the one Massachusetts adopted when he was governor. "Especially with his business background and in a stagnant economy, he may be the most electable," McCotter said.
He likes Romney rival Texas Gov. Rick Perry, but said the country isn't ready for another Texas president so soon after President George W. Bush. "He may be a vice presidential nominee," McCotter said.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
McCotter Out
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Comrade McCotter
It was one part tea party rally, one part holiday concert.
But the Freedom Festival, sponsored by conservative talk radio station WAAM-AM (1600), was also the launchpad for U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter's presidential run.
The 45-year-old Livonia Republican filed the necessary paperwork Friday to make the run, but he made it official in Whitmore Lake on Saturday, on a makeshift stage in an open field under a sweltering and ominous sky that threatened to soak the hundreds of people who came to the festival.
...
Talk to people who know McCotter well, and he's either the smartest guy in the room or a hard-line conservative who doesn't know what he's gotten himself into.
The first time Tom Stroup met McCotter, they talked about China and how to deal with trade issues. The conversation earned Stroup, the chairman of the 11th District Congressional Republicans, one of the congressman's nicknames.
"He calls me Comrade," said Stroup of Northville. "He has a huge vocabulary that sometimes sails over my head, but he's the smartest guy in any room that he walks into."
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Nerd Power!
The last House member to go directly to the presidency was James A. Garfield in 1880.Another Republican is eyeing a late entrance into the presidential primary, and his name is not Jeb, Chris, Paul or Rick.
It’s Thaddeus.
In an interview Monday with POLITICO, Michigan Rep. Thaddeus McCotter said he’s seriously considering a White House bid and will decide within the next two weeks.
McCotter argued that the current crop of GOP candidates simply isn’t making the case about how to confront what he described as the existential threats facing the country.
“I think the majority of the Republican electorate isn’t happy with the choices they’ve got and want to take a look at new people,” he said.
McCotter said his party must address four major issues: “The challenge of globalization, the war for freedom against terrorists, the rise of Communist China and whether moral relativism erodes a nation built on self-evident truth.”