President Trump’s endorsement record ran into one of the strangest results of the 2026 primary season Tuesday night.
Amir Hassan, the Navy veteran and former federal law-enforcement officer backed by Trump, lost Michigan’s 8th District Republican primary to retired General Motors engineer Thomas J. Smith.
But the margin was not the only surprise. Smith had stopped actively campaigning weeks before Election Day and endorsed another candidate in the same race.
The Associated Press called the Republican primary for Smith after results from the battleground district came in. All three Republicans appeared on the same August 4 ballot.
AP gathers its vote totals from local election officials and calls a race only after determining that the trailing candidates no longer have a path to victory. The result remains unofficial until Michigan’s certification process is complete.
With 99% of the expected vote counted Wednesday morning, Smith had 50.4% of the vote. Hassan stood at 33.2%, while Al Lemmo received 16.4%.
Smith therefore cleared the 50% mark in a three-way field and beat Hassan by more than 17 points. This was a decisive win over the better-funded candidate with national Republican support.
The AP call also ended any realistic hope that late-counted ballots could reverse the order. The bigger question immediately shifted from who won to how Smith managed it after walking away from active campaigning.
All three Republicans appeared on the same August 4 primary ballot, and Smith’s majority made the choice unmistakable.
The truly bizarre part came before voters went to the polls.
Midland Daily News reported that Smith had suspended his campaign on July 16 and endorsed Lemmo.
Smith’s name remained on the ballot, however, and Republican voters chose him anyway. Lemmo, the candidate Smith wanted his supporters to back, finished a distant third.
The timing made the outcome even harder to explain through ordinary campaign momentum. Smith stepped back less than three weeks before Election Day, while absentee and early votes were already an important part of Michigan’s primary.
Smith is a retired GM engineer who kept a remarkably low profile throughout the contest. In a July candidate questionnaire, he identified constitutional rights as the district’s most important issue and pointed to pandemic-era restrictions as a warning about government power.
He also said he would guard against manufactured crises being used to erode the Bill of Rights.
That message evidently traveled farther than his campaign did.
The local paper reported that Smith did little campaigning and remained largely unknown outside the district. Midland County Republican Party Chair Cathy Leikhim said the upset showed that voters—not pundits or conventional wisdom—ultimately decide elections.
Leikhim also said Republicans would unite behind the nominee after certification and turn their focus to November. That task begins under unusually awkward circumstances: the nominee had publicly asked his own supporters to choose the third-place finisher.
Smith now inherits the nomination, the general-election burden and a party apparatus that had largely prepared for somebody else.
Hassan entered the primary with nearly every conventional advantage.
He is a Flint native, a Navy veteran and a former federal law-enforcement officer. He launched his campaign in July 2025 and became a consistent presence at Republican events across the district.
Then came the biggest endorsement available in a Republican primary.
On June 22, President Trump gave Hassan his “Complete and Total Endorsement,” citing his military and law-enforcement service and pledging that he would support the America First agenda in Congress.
The full endorsement, preserved by the Trump’s Truth archive, highlighted Hassan’s positions on taxes, regulation, American energy, border security, the military and the Second Amendment.
President Trump also emphasized Hassan’s service in the Navy and his work protecting the public as a federal law-enforcement officer. He presented Hassan as a reliable America First vote who would support domestic manufacturing, veterans and tougher border enforcement.
The endorsement was dated June 22, giving the campaign more than six weeks to turn presidential support into votes. National Republicans amplified it, while Team Trump promoted Hassan directly in the closing stretch.
Hassan also entered Election Day with backing from Republican figures at the local, state and federal levels. On paper, he looked like the candidate with the organization, endorsements and momentum to win.
Team Trump was still rallying support for Hassan little more than a week before the election.
Trump-endorsed Amir @HassanforMi is MICHIGAN BORN and RAISED. He's running to represent YOU in Michigan's 8th Congressional District.
MAKE SOME NOISE FOR AMIR! 🗣️🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/QHsbJXJNyE
— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) July 27, 2026
None of it was enough.
The result is a reminder that endorsements can move a race, but they cannot erase local dynamics, early voting or the judgment of voters who know the names on their own ballot.
There was little public polling in the contest, and Smith’s limited campaign left outside observers with few signals that he was about to win.
Hassan had endorsements from Republican officials at the local, state and federal levels. Smith had already told supporters to vote for somebody else.
Yet Smith crossed 50%.
A candidate who wins an outright majority by that margin cannot be dismissed as the lucky beneficiary of a split field.
Michigan’s 8th District includes Flint, Saginaw, Bay City and Midland. It is represented by freshman Democrat Kristen McDonald Rivet, who did not face a primary opponent.
Smith is now expected to face McDonald Rivet in November in a district both parties will watch closely.
The first job for Republicans will be figuring out what kind of campaign Smith intends to run after winning a nomination he had stopped seeking.
The second will be bringing together voters and party organizations that spent the final weeks of the primary moving in three different directions.
President Trump’s team backed Hassan. Smith backed Lemmo.
Michigan Republicans backed Smith—and they did it decisively.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
