Name: Republican US Rep. Kinzinger, an outspoken Trump opponent, says he doesn’t intend to seek statewide office in 2022
Brand: chicagotribune.com
SKU: chicagotribune-com-336
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Republican US Rep. Kinzinger, an outspoken Trump opponent, says he doesn’t intend to seek statewide office in 2022

preview

AdvertisementBy Chicago TribuneFeb 10, 2021 at 6:14 pmU.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Channahon, who has sought and gained national attention for battling Donald Trump’s influence over the Republican Party, said Tuesday he has no intention of seeking statewide office in 2022 and acknowledged it would be difficult for him to get through a GOP primary.Speaking to reporters on the day of opening arguments in the former president’s second impeachment trial, Kinzinger also said if he were a senator he would vote to convict Trump to hold him accountable for his role in the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol that occurred as a joint session of Congress was certifying the electoral votes making Joe Biden the nation’s new president.Advertisement“It’s not my intention to run for anything statewide. I think there’s probably less of that chatter. At the beginning, I heard people speculate that I was taking the positions I was taking to set myself up to run statewide. And I’ll tell you, people who speculate that don’t know me. And, I would even argue that they probably don’t know something about politics if you think I can get through a primary pretty easily,” said Kinzinger, 42, a five-term GOP congressman.Kinzinger voted against Trump’s first impeachment, but was one of 10 House Republicans to vote for Trump’s second impeachment.AdvertisementKinzinger has become a frequent guest of national cable television and talk shows and has received profile treatment in national publications. This week, published an op-ed on his “Country First” movement against Trump-led Republicanism and he was featured in “.”Kinzinger previously said his attempt to create a movement to “take back” the Republican Party was not an effort to position himself for higher office in 2022 with the seats of Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth and Gov. J.B. Pritzker on the ballot.On Tuesday, he sounded more definite, saying his efforts to battle Trumpism in the days after the Nov. 3 election were not rooted in politics but were “based 100% on conscience.”Nevertheless, Kinzinger said he was including a caveat “not to rule anything out” about his political future “just because for whatever reason something happens and I do (run), I want to have the integrity.”“I don’t know where this leads and I know, in the political world, everybody has their future plans and everything mapped out, and they never actually come true anyway. But that’s how politicians who are power hungry play,” he said in a conference call with reporters.“That’s not the case at the moment for me. I really have felt compelled that this is a fight worth having and if it leads to me being out of office in a year and a half, so be it, I’m at peace. If it leads to something else, so be it, I’m at peace. But right now, the battle is to save the soul of this party,” he said.Kinzinger’s actions against Trump and his supporters, most recently being among 11 House Republicans who joined with Democrats to strip controversial freshman Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments, have caused criticism from within elements of the state GOP.The Illinois Republican Party issued a mild rebuke, saying it disagreed with his actions on Trump but acknowledging voters should have the ultimate say. The LaSalle County GOP voted to censure him and the Winnebago County GOP is considering similar action.Advertisement“Quite honestly, I don’t care. It’s not something I focus on. Censorship has lost its impact. Everybody’s censured now for everything,” Kinzinger said. “I prefer not be censured, but I really, really will not lose an ounce of sleep if I am. Not even an ounce.”Kinzinger said the next stages of his movement include efforts to gain more publicity and to distribute content as well as to provide a forum for like-minded Republicans to discuss issues. Kinzinger said it also will look to recruit GOP candidates for federal, state and local offices.“Yeah, I’ll definitely support somebody that supported Donald Trump. But here’s the rules, I think: You’ve just got to commit to telling people the truth and you got to commit to not peddling conspiracy theories. Seems like a low bar, but unfortunately even that low bar eliminates a lot of people,” he said.Kinzinger said he supported the state GOP’s election of Springfield business owner and attorney Don Tracy as its new chairman and his pledge to seek unity in a state sharply divided by ideology and geography, with Downstate heavily conservative Republican and the once GOP-led suburbs trending ever more Democratic.“We’re in this litmus test moment where, yeah, we’re going to win some Southern Illinois districts, but you’ll never win anywhere north of the area I represent unless we get back to the basics of what we believe, we welcome people with a different viewpoint, who don’t look like us, and quit trying to ascribe to conspiracy theories and division,” he said.Advertisement“As long as we’re peddling QAnon and white supremacy, that message is going to get lost, and quite honestly I don’t buy QAnon and white supremacy as a life choice,” Kinzinger said. “If we continue this purity for profit kind of thing that’s going on, we’ll be the minority party here forever.”As for Trump’s second impeachment trial, Kinzinger said he understands the weight placed on the 50 Republican senators who are among the jury. He said he has talked to at least one, but wouldn’t name him. But he expected Trump to be acquitted through GOP votes.“Donald Trump’s relevance every day will continue to go away. He deserves some respect being a former president, but he’s no longer at the controls of government, as of now he doesn’t have his Twitter account, which is nice, and so from that we’ll see what happens when he’s acquitted, if he is,” Kinzinger said.The congressman likened the reckoning he sees facing Republicans to waking up on a Sunday morning after “a massive bender on Saturday and making the decision: Get your life straight or start drinking a bloody mary.”“I’m advocating for get your life straight, and there’s some out there advocating for getting the bloody mary. And I’ll tell you, I like a good bloody mary, tastes really good, but you’re just going to be facing this pain later and you’ll be doing more damage,” he said.AdvertisementTwitter Advertisement

AdvertisementBy Chicago TribuneFeb 10, 2021 at 6:14 pmU.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Channahon, who has sought and gained national attention for battling Donald Trump’s influence over the Republican Party, said Tuesday he has no intention of seeking statewide office in 2022 and acknowledged it would be difficult for him to get through a GOP primary.Speaking to reporters on the day of opening arguments in the former president’s second impeachment trial, Kinzinger also said if he were a senator he would vote to convict Trump to hold him accountable for his role in the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the...

public

Rick Pearson

The Chicago Tribune is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television are named), it remains the most-read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region. It had the 6th highest circulation for American newspapers in 2017.

Republican US Rep. Kinzinger, an outspoken Trump opponent, says he doesn’t intend to seek statewide office in 2022

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS