A little-known salsa mogul bested President Donald Trump’s handpicked candidate in the GOP primary for Michigan‘s 8th Congressional District this week, despite having quit the race a month earlier.
Thomas Smith, a former engineer for General Motors, will face off against first-term Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-MI) in November. The 8th District, which encompasses the communities of Flint, Saginaw, and Bay City, voted narrowly for Trump by two points in 2024. At the same time, McDonald Rivet won the seat by 7 points over GOP businessman Paul Junge.
Smith, who raised only $1,850 total for his primary campaign, now has less than 100 days to prove that he’s a serious candidate and can compete against McDonald Rivet in a seat that, on paper, is a possible pickup opportunity for Republicans.
“I am humbled and honored that Republicans have chosen me to take the fight to Kristen McDonald Rivet,” Smith said on social media after his surprise victory. “I look forward to working with Speaker Johnson and the entire Republican team to expand our House majority and advance President Trump’s America First agenda to lower costs for working families and make America affordable again.”
Smith and his son Dave, a Marine veteran, created Jar Head Salsa in 2009, according to his campaign website. The company was the product of Smith’s desire to be an entrepreneur and his son’s passion for salsa. Smith told USA Today in 2018 that the salsa recipe came from Dave’s experience in the Marines, running the “food service for some 3,000 Marines stationed at Camp Pendleton” in California.
“We went to visit him, and he told us to try the salsa he created. It was wonderful,” Smith told USA Today. “We started bringing back coolers of his salsa.”
Smith and his wife would share the salsa with friends and colleagues, and the hype only grew. A colleague of Smith’s wife loved the product so much that he brought $3,000 worth of it, money that was saved to eventually become the start-up capital for the business.
“I had this entrepreneurial desire that was pent up all those years at GM,” Smith told USA Today. “This doctor, who kept ordering the salsa and giving it to his friends, said we should go into business. That’s all I needed to hear.”
From there, the business grew. Smith, who has an MBA from Michigan State University, runs the business with his son to this day. A portion of the business proceeds is donated to veterans, and the company’s signature salsa jar features a picture of Dave in uniform.
“Top Secret Recipe includes eight different vegetables, citrus juices, and spices,” Jar Head Salsa’s Facebook bio read. “Each serving has 15% of your daily Vitamin C (over 3 times the average salsa). 10% of proceeds from sales of Jar Head Salsa donated to the Veterans of Foreign Wars.”
Jar Head Salsa has a slew of different products, such as salsa, mild salsa, chips, chili-lime chips, and queso, but the recipe is never to be shared.
“Top secret recipe: if we told you, we’d have to shoot you,” the jar reads.
Smith has leaned into his background as a salsa entrepreneur on the campaign trail.
“As a small business owner, Tom understands the value of hard work and the importance of providing opportunities for employees,” his campaign website reads. “Tom has experienced firsthand the challenges families and entrepreneurs face every day- rising costs, burdensome government regulations, and the struggle to compete and grow.”
REPUBLICANS EMBRACE CANDIDATE WHO DROPPED OUT AFTER SHOCKING WIN OVER TRUMP-BACKED AMIR HASSAN
Smith beat Trump-backed Navy veteran Amir Hassan in Tuesday’s primary. National Republicans had hoped that Hassan’s military background and law enforcement experience would help make the 8th District competitive in the general election. Hassan even appeared onstage and spoke at a Trump rally last week before his surprise defeat.
Despite dropping out a month prior, Smith beat Hassan on election day by 17 points. The Washington Examiner reached out to Smith’s campaign for comment.