Rep. Justin Amash’s decision to form an exploratory committee for a run for president as the Libertarian Party candidate could wind up being a very significant moment in the 2020 race.

Exactly why and how, though, isn’t entirely clear.

Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.) announced Tuesday that he has launched an exploratory committee to seek the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination, his strongest indication yet that he will mount a third-party White House bid.

“Today, I launched an exploratory committee to seek the @LPNational’s nomination for president of the United States. Americans are ready for practical approaches based in humility and trust of the people,” Amash tweeted.

Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.) announced on Tuesday that he has "launched an exploratory committee" to seek the Libertarian Party's 2020 presidential nomination.

Why it matters: Amash gained notoriety last year when he came out as the lone House Republican to support the impeachment of President Trump following the publication of the Mueller report. He later switched his party affiliation to independent.

What they're saying:

Libertarians keep saying that there are very few meaningful differences between the Republicans and the Democrats. And one of the many things revealed by the political response to the coronavirus pandemic is…that there are very few meaningful differences between the Republicans and Democrats.

IN EARLY OCTOBER, as the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump took shape, Oliver Darcy, CNN’s senior media reporter, wrote that right-wing media such as Fox News had “successfully managed to lock the Republican Party from access to its own base.” Republican representatives wouldn’t challenge Trump on Ukraine, Darcy reasoned, because they feared critical coverage from the national conservative-media sources that Trump voters favor.

Justin Amash isn’t a Republican anymore, and he just voted in favor of the Democrats’ impeachment investigation.

He’s still more conservative than President Trump.

Don’t tell that to the Amash haters, who are in full meltdown mode at the thought that any conservative (even a libertarian-leaning one) might be concerned enough by Trump’s dealings with Ukraine to entertain the idea of impeachment.

It is difficult to discourage and impossible to manage Justin Amash because he, unusual among politicians, does not want much and wants nothing inordinately. He would like to win a sixth term as congressman from this culturally distinctive slice of the Midwest. He does not, however, want it enough to remain in today’s Republican Party, which he has left because that neighborhood has become blighted. Amash, 39, a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, also has left that once-admirable faction because he does not define freedom as it now does, as devotion to the 45th president.

Well, he already left the House Freedom Caucus. He’s for the impeachment of President Donald J. Trump. It’s not shocking that Rep. Justin Amash (I-MI) decided to declare his intention to leave the Republican Party. It’s the usual crap from these clowns. He’s doing it because of principles. That’s fine, but even his stance on why eh supported Trump’s impeachment was a bit shaky since it means buying into the alleged (and probable) abuse of power that was exercised by the government against the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.

Michigan Rep. Justin Amash said Thursday that he's leaving the Republican party to become an independent as modern politics remains "trapped in a partisan death spiral."

Penning an op-ed in the Washington Post on the July 4th holiday, Amash described how he had become "disenchanted with party politics" and "frightened by what I see from it."

"The two-party system has evolved into an existential threat to American principles and institutions," Amash wrote.

Rep. Justin Amash is celebrating this Fourth of July in a manner years in the making: by declaring his independence from the Republican Party.

“No matter your circumstance, I’m asking you to join me in rejecting the partisan loyalties and rhetoric that divide and dehumanize us,” Amash wrote in a Washington Post op-ed posted Thursday morning. “I’m asking you to believe that we can do better than this two-party system — and to work toward it. If we continue to take America for granted, we will lose it.”