President Donald Trump suffered a political upset on Tuesday when his endorsed candidate in Michigan’s 8th Congressional District Republican primary, Amir Hassan, lost to Thomas Smith—a candidate who had formally suspended his campaign weeks earlier.
In one of the most surprising results of Tuesday night’s elections, Republican voters in Michigan rejected the presidential mandate in favor of a candidate whose name remained locked on the ballot due to inflexible election deadlines. Thomas Smith, a retired General Motors engineer, secured 50.4 percent of the vote across the district, according to the Associated Press. Amir Hassan, an ex-Navy veteran and federal law enforcement officer armed with a Complete and Total Endorsement
from Donald Trump, finished a distant second with 33.2 percent.
Ballot Deadlines and Victory for Thomas Smith
The unusual result stems entirely from administrative timing rather than active campaigning. Smith even appeared in a Facebook video wearing a Lemmo for Congress hat. State election deadlines, however, dictated that Smith’s name remain printed on the primary ballot.
Unaware or indifferent to his withdrawal, over 10,600 more voters chose Smith over Hassan. Al Lemmo finished in a distant third place with just 16.4 percent of the vote, despite receiving Smith’s active endorsement and appearing in campaign materials alongside him. Smith told reporters he was humbled and honored that Republicans have chosen me
following the unexpected outcome, though his path forward against a well-funded incumbent remains complex.
The Limits of the Presidential Endorsement in Michigan
The defeat marks a notable blemish on Donald Trump’s otherwise successful primary endorsement record this cycle. Over the preceding three months, the former president utilized his Truth Social platform to aggressively promote Hassan, citing his military and law enforcement background as ideal credentials to unseat a Democrat.
That same post attacked the Democratic incumbent, Representative Kristen McDonald Rivet, claiming she voted against NO TAX ON TIPS, NO TAX ON OVERTIME, and NO TAX ON SOCIAL SECURITY and, if she and the Dumocrats ever got in, all of these things would be terminated.
Despite the high-visibility backing, local conservative primary voters comprehensively rejected the directive. Focus groups and political strategists suggest that primary voters harbored deep-seated biases regarding candidate names, defaulting to the historically familiar Thomas Smith
over Hassan, pointing to a fundamental disconnect between national party directives and local grassroots sentiment.
General Election Stakes Against Representative Kristen McDonald Rivet
The Michigan Republican Party now faces administrative chaos as they prepare for the general election against first-term Democratic incumbent Representative Kristen McDonald Rivet, who faced no primary opponent. McDonald Rivet enters the general election with a formidable financial advantage, having banked roughly $4.25 million by mid-July after raising more than $5.6 million. By contrast, Hassan raised about $727,000 during his primary campaign.
Trump carried the battleground district by two points in 2024, while McDonald Rivet won her seat by almost 7 percentage points. Smith now faces the challenge of unifying a fractured local party apparatus around an accidental nomination that even he had abandoned weeks before election day.
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