GRAND RAPIDS, MI — After winning election in 2020, Republican U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer went to Washington eager to promote conservative principles such as limited government and economic freedom, and to find ways to boost bipartisanship.
But Meijer, R-Grand Rapids Township, who’s time in office is now coming to a close, soon found himself facing a situation he never could have predicted. Rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, and Meijer joined nine other House Republicans in voting to impeach former President Donald Trump for inciting the insurrection.
Ultimately, it was a vote that cost Meijer his job.
“At the end of the day, if I had a nickel for every Republican colleague who said I totally agree with you, I wish I could have cast the vote but it would be too politically difficult, I would have a lot of nickels,” said Meijer, who was defeated 52% to 48% in the August Republican primary by Trump-endorsed candidate John Gibbs.
Gibbs, who targeted Meijer because of his impeachment vote, lost to Democrat Hillary Scholten 55% to 42% in the November general election. She’s the first Democrat elected to represent Grand Rapids in Congress since 1974.
During an interview, Meijer, an Iraq war veteran whose family founded the Meijer grocery store chain, reflected on his time in Congress. He spoke about his victories, his regrets, as well as the Jan. 6 insurrection and his vote to impeach Trump.
“It was certainly the honor of a lifetime to be able to represent my hometown in Congress, and to fill some pretty big shoes,” said Meijer, referring to his past Republican congressmen who held the seat, including former President Gerald Ford, Paul Henry and Vern Ehlers.
Moving forward, Meijer said he’s still planning his next steps. But he will remain in West Michigan and will be looking for new ways to serve the community and advance the policies and priorities he values. He also said he’s not ruling out another run for office.
“My goal in running for office was to serve, and that goal has not changed,” he said. “The capacity in which I’m serving might.”
He added, “I’m going to continue to stay engaged on moving a lot of the issues we were working on at the federal level. But also, I really saw the limitations of what the federal government can do when it comes to addressing a lot of the issues most top of mind to folks in West Michigan.”
While Meijer, 34, drew the most headlines for his impeachment vote, he said he was proud of what he accomplished in office.
The East Grand Rapids Public Schools graduate said four of his bills were signed into law. That’s double the previous record of two bills from a freshman congressman, he said.
His bills included efforts to increase awareness of human trafficking, create a national supply chain database, and establish a Department of Homeland Security trade and economic security council, he said. They also include a commission to modernize and strengthen the State Department.
“I think it’s easy to make it look like you’re doing something if you’re dropping a lot of pieces of legislation,” Meijer said. “But if those bills are going nowhere and you’re not putting in the hard work to get it across the finish line, you’re not moving the needle, you’re just wasting oxygen.”
Other achievements included securing $7.2 million to help connect hundreds of homes in a Cascade Township neighborhood, whose wells were polluted by PFAS, to municipal water. He also secured $3 million to help Hope Network transform Fulton Manor in Grand Rapids into low-income housing.
In addition, Meijer worked with U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, on legislation, elements of which were signed into law, to provide additional health care and disability benefits to veterans exposed to toxic burn pits in combat zones.
When asked if he has any regrets, Meijer said he would have liked to have communicated better with constituents.
“I think there is a lot of people who talk and talk and talk and don’t get anything done,” he said. “I’m proud that we got a lot of things done. But I felt like we never cracked the code on how to be as efficient and effective in communicating what we were working on.”
Speaking about his loss to Gibbs during the primary, Meijer said he faced a challenge of running in the newly drawn 3rd Congressional District following the once-a-decade redistricting process.
“Fifty percent of the district (was) brand new,” he said. “So that obviously was a challenge.”
He also said the Democratic Party “wanted to do what they could to manipulate the primary.”
He pointed, for example, to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s (DCCC) support of TV commercials touting Gibbs’ endorsement by Trump. The idea behind the ads was to promote Gibbs because he was seen as an easier candidate for Scholten to beat in the November general election.
“I really think it was,” Meijer said when asked if the DCCC was one of the factors that helped Gibbs defeat Meijer in the primary. “Gibbs wasn’t able to afford a single TV ad, and he needed it.”
Reflecting on his loss and the state of the GOP, Meijer said the Republican party needs to reevaluate its strategy and the candidates it’s putting up for election, given how poorly the party performed in the 2022 mid-term election, he said. Democrats swept the statewide offices and won control of the state House and Senate.
“With the exception of some countywide officials, come Jan. 3 at noon I won’t be represented by a single Republican in any legislative capacity,” Meijer said. “That’s pretty depressing. That should be a time for the party here in Michigan to take stock, see what went wrong.”
In his final days in office, one of Meijer’s priorities was the passage of the Afghan Adjustment Act.
Meijer, a frequent and vocal critic of the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, said the act was important because it would have provided Afghans evacuated from their country a pathway to apply for permanent residency in the U.S.
Ultimately, the Senate did not include the act in a final, year-end spending package.
“The fact that we weren’t able to get this done is incredibly disappointing,” said Meijer, who spoke about the need to pass the legislation in his final speech from the House floor. “It’s an insult on top of the moral injury and shame that was the catastrophic withdrawal.”
With his time in office coming to an end, Meijer, of Grand Rapids Township, is back in West Michigan — and he says he intends to stay here.
“West Michigan is my home,” he said. “It cracks me up. There are people who are like ‘Are you going to stay in D.C.? Why? I rented an apartment here while I was a member. West Michigan is home.”
Read more:
Grand Rapids business district awarded state grant
Historic Flat Iron building in Grand Rapids sold to Cleveland firm for $9.75M
57-unit market rate apartment building planned for downtown Grand Rapids
