{"id":29451,"date":"2026-08-06T05:36:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T00:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=29451"},"modified":"2026-08-06T05:36:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T00:36:22","slug":"thomas-smith-dropped-his-michigan-house-bid-last-month-but-won-the-gop-primary-anyway-beating-trump-backed-opponent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=29451","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Smith dropped his Michigan House bid last month, but won the GOP primary anyway, beating Trump-backed opponent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>Thomas Smith won Michigan&#8217;s 8th District GOP primary with just over 50% of the vote Tuesday, CBS News projected \u2014 even though he had suspended his campaign in mid-July.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps even more surprisingly: Smith defeated Amir Hassan, who had received President Trump&#8217;s endorsement.\u00a0 Mr. Trump even appeared at a <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/detroit\/news\/president-trump-visit-general-motors-michigan\/\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">campaign rally<\/a><\/span> with Hassan and other Republican candidates in Milford, Michigan, a few days ago.<\/p>\n<p>Smith, who says on his campaign website that he&#8217;s a <a href=\"https:\/\/tomsmithformi.com\/?fbclid=IwY2xjawTgn_5leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETE3aU5KSFdMckpJdU11Vm1Jc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHgcdp9aRZpwSczYdm1JwtMM7m0tmquN15HW0i73LksUTcS4bYssNI8MPvO7p_aem_Mq_V9ITf8KrI1UbGC4IogQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">salsa entrepreneur and retired General Motors engineer<\/a>, struggled with fundraising. In <a href=\"https:\/\/docquery.fec.gov\/pdf\/094\/202607210300532094\/202607210300532094.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a handwritten letter to the FEC<\/a> on July 12, he disclosed that he had only raised $1,850 through June 30.<\/p>\n<p>He also appeared to struggle with the FEC&#8217;s technology, adding in a postscript, &#8220;I could not file this form electronically because I have had no success logging in and have not been able to get a response from the help desk.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Upon withdrawing from the race, Smith issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/61570730128562\/videos\/1344957407180337\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">video endorsement for Al Lemmo<\/a>. Lemmo finished third, behind Hassan.<\/p>\n<p>He has revived his campaign and said in a statement to the Detroit News, &#8220;I am humbled and honored that Republicans have chosen me to take the fight to Kristen McDonald Rivet,&#8221; the incumbent Democratic congresswoman who holds the seat.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Covering Flint and other parts of Central Michigan, the 8th District is <a href=\"https:\/\/centerforpolitics.org\/crystalball\/the-2024-crossover-house-seats-overall-number-remains-low-with-few-harris-district-republicans\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">one of 13 House seats<\/a> where voters elected a Democrat to Congress but favored Mr. Trump for the presidency in 2024.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hassanformi.com\/#about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hassan<\/a>, a Navy veteran with a background in federal law enforcement, said he&#8217;s &#8220;disappointed not defeated&#8221; in a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/HassanforMi\/status\/2085021510368911557\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">post on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Hassan is so far the only Trump-endorsed House candidate in this year&#8217;s midterm election cycle to lose a primary. Mr. Trump alluded to Hassan&#8217;s defeat without mentioning him by name Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I endorsed a lot of candidates, and the end result \u2014 I was 28 wins and one loss. It was a little bit of a person that I thought was a good person. Didn&#8217;t have much of a chance, but I said, &#8216;I don&#8217;t care, I&#8217;m doing it anyway.'&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Good person, very good, very respected, but nobody knew who the person was,&#8221; the president said during a speech in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n<\/section>\n<p>  <!-- data-recirc-source=\"queryly\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation  \">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">More from CBS News<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"component__item-recirc-block\">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">Go deeper with The Free Press<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n      <!-- tags --><br \/>\n    <\/section>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thomas Smith won Michigan&#8217;s 8th District GOP primary with just over 50% of the vote Tuesday, CBS News projected \u2014 even though he had suspended his campaign in mid-July.\u00a0 Perhaps even more surprisingly: Smith defeated Amir Hassan, who had received President Trump&#8217;s endorsement.\u00a0 Mr. Trump even appeared at a campaign rally with Hassan and other&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/08\/06\/3cb9daad-acbb-4372-9bce-7c7da870095b\/thumbnail\/1200x630\/a2ff9a24cb875bdebf87cbc7bfb2f2d7\/726337201-122103210369361673-8825420044527423322-n.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}