Justin Amash and the Libertarian Party
Representative Justin Amash is unlikely to be reelected to the House of Representatives this November, but he is far more unlikely to be elected President of the United States. He quietly suspended his campaign for reelection to Congress for Michigan's third congressional district earlier this year, clearly based on polling that showed him unlikely to defeat Republican challengers endorsed by President Trump.
Given the level of vitriol that Trump has leveled against Amash, even when he was a member of the Republican Party, it's easy to see why Amash would get some level of satisfaction running directly against Trump and possibly even playing the role of spoiler in Trump's reelection bid, but is this what's best for the Libertarian Party?
It's unlikely that the 2020 Libertarian nominee will do as well as Gary Johnson, the 2016 nominee, did through no fault of their own and through no virtue of Johnson's. Johnson got the historic number of votes he did (Historic for the Libertarian Party) not because people were voting for Johnson, but because they couldn't stand to vote for Trump or Hillary Clinton, two of the most hated nominees in U.S. history. Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for 2020, is far more beloved by the average Democratic and independent voter, and even disaffected Republican "Never Trump" voter, than Hillary Clinton was, and after four years of Trump these voters may be less likely to make a third-party "protest vote" in general regardless of their feelings toward Biden.
The Libertarian Party will absolutely have a presidential nominee for 2020, but the Libertarian National Committee has to be prepared for that nominee to do far worse than Johnson did in 2016 regardless of who it is.
But Justin Amash is an incumbent Congressman, and while the polling may show that Amash would have a tough road to win reelection it seems like too good of an opportunity for the Libertarian Party to actually win an election to federal office. Amash is never going to be President of the United States, but he's already a U.S. Representative and has the incumbent's advantage for the upcoming election.
The best thing for the Libertarian Party, at least in my opinion, is for Jacob Hornberger to be the nominee for the 2020 presidential election and for Justin Amash to focus on attempting to win reelection to the House of Representatives. This would not only be a bigger thumb in Trump's eye than failing to hurt his reelection chances whatsoever by running for President, but it would also be a huge boost to the party's credibility overall. A Libertarian winning a federal election and actually serving in the U.S. government, even if it were only for a single term, would have positive effects for the fortunes and credibility of the party in future elections.