Thread by @dsamuelsohn

NEW: Meet Rep. Peter Meijer, a millennial GOP congressman who's intro to Congress was a vote to impeach Trump. Then he had to buy a flak jacket. A GREAT long-read from @adamwren who spent time in Grand Rapids, Mich. with the 33 yo supermarket scion. ($) businessinsider.com/peter-meijer-t…

Meijer got elected in November to Gerald Ford's old House seat. He's since earned the vitriol of Trumpland as one of the 10 Republican members of Congress to condemn the president of the United States for his role in fomenting the tragic events of January 6.

Meijer's family (of the Midwestern supermarket chain) is worth $12.6 billion, according to Forbes, so he is better-inoculated from Trumpist ire than the average GOP freshman.

Adam writes: "These are surreal times to be Meijer. At 33, he is the 8th-youngest member of Congress & quick w/ references to the classic "Oregon Trail" video game. About a week before we met, Michigan GOP Party Chair Ron Weiser suggested assassination as a way to remove Meijer."

Asked about the remarks, Meijer smiled and shrugged but declined to say anything. A spokesman for the Michigan Republican Party did not respond to Insider messages seeking an interview with Weiser.

Meijer explains: "If you give me two paths, and one has a very expected predictable outcome and the other just kind of says, 'there be dragons,' I'm probably going to choose that one."

Adam again: "Meijer doesn't need the headaches of being one of 435 members of Congress. After only three months in Washington, where he rents an apartment and lives with his wife, the go-it-alone Meijer has established himself as something of a maverick."

Meijer also rails against the QAnon conspiracy theory & has called it an "existential threat" to the GOP. He lamented fellow congressional Republicans who fundraised off of "'stop the steal' grift." He doesn't get along with the likes of Reps. Matt Gaetz or Marjorie Taylor Green.

"He doesn't have deep roots in the party," Jeff Timmer, the former chairman of the Michigan GOP and a senior advisor to the Lincoln Project. "He didn't come up through the ranks, like a lot of folks do. And one of his first big visible things pissed off most of the party."

One of my favorite lines from this @adamwren story: "Indeed, Meijer speaks like someone who has zero — shall we say — 'Frederik Meijers' left to give."

"There's probably a certain freedom to knowing that if I am voted out of office, life probably becomes a lot easier rather than harder," Meijer said. "I think for many, this is the most salary and the highest prestige they'll ever receive."

Fun tidbit: When he was 5 or so, Peter Meijer became "Peter Meyer." He can't remember the exact reasons — perhaps the family dog was kidnapped & held for ransom, he wondered aloud — but what he does know is his family changed the spelling of its last name for more than a decade.

It was one of the things that gave a Meijer kid a semblance of a normal childhood in West Mich. "I'm not confident enough in the veracity of the dog kidnapping," he said. "It's sort of quasi family lore. It's sufficiently salacious, and I'm sufficiently sketchy on the details."

What is clear, according to Kent County probate records: On 5/18/06, Peter James Frederik Meyer became, once again, Peter James Frederik Meijer. It was in time for graduation from East Grand Rapids High School & a new professional life & education that lied beyond West Michigan.

There's a bunch more great stuff in this @adamwren story about @RepMeijer - deserving of a long read here on a Saturday morning. Subscribe to @thisisinsider and enjoy it. Click from here to sign up: businessinsider.com/peter-meijer-t…