Retiring Republican U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger said in a video Wednesday that he will forego a bid for U.S. Senate or Illinois governor to focus on the fight against former President Donald Trump’s influence over the GOP.
“This time last year I hoped victory would come in a matter of months. Now I see it will take years,” the six-term lawmaker from Channahon said on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
“That’s why I’m transitioning from serving just one corner of Illinois into fighting this new nationwide mission full time,” he said.
Kinzinger has been one of the few Republicans on Capitol Hill to oppose Trump’s leadership of the GOP and decry baseless allegations that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen. He formed the Country First political action committee and movement last year to back Republicans opposed to the former president.
In October, after a redistricting map drawn by Democrats put Kinzinger in the same congressional district as Republican U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood of Peoria in a region filled with hard right GOP voters, Kinzinger announced he would not run for Congress. But he had left the door open for a possible challenge to Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth or Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
Kinzinger ruled those efforts out Wednesday as he also delivered a broadside to the Republican leadership with whom he has often clashed. Kinzinger was one of 10 House Republicans to vote for Trump’s impeachment for his role in the Jan. 6 uprising and is one of two Republicans on Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s panel investigating the causes of the insurrection.
“Some say it’s time to move on from Jan. 6th. But we can’t move on without addressing what happened or by pretending it never happened,” Kinzinger said.
“The 2020 election was not stolen. Joe Biden won. Donald Trump lost. We have to admit it. But the leadership of the Republican Party won’t. They lied to the American people and they still are,” he said.
As a result, Kinzinger said “the people must rise to the occasion” and restore principled GOP leadership.
“That means choosing truth over lies, hope over fear and progress over anger,” he said. “It means stepping up to vote for principled leaders—especially in the primaries. It means taking stock in who we listen to and what we ask of ourselves, thinking about what we want the future to look like.”
Kinzinger’s prospects in a statewide election bid would have been slim in a GOP primary and even more problematic in a general election in a state that has turned strongly Democratic. As a result, his decision not to run was not unexpected.
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Not only did this creepy guy want to run for senator or governor he actually thought he might enter into the NH primary for president.
ROFL
FOR all i care, he could run for president of bupkissistan.. HE AIN’T GETTING a win here.
He ain’t getting a win …ANYWHERE!! and… He knows it… claiming President Trump “mastermind” the Jan. 6th …mostly peaceful protest was his political death sentence. Unless he changes the R at the end of his useless name to D then he’ll be a libtard hero… and yes I know he served our country militarily… that doesn’t excuse his obedience / sellout to satan.
They are so focused on invisible Trump dirt that they are not smart enough to know they will never reach their demonic goal. A bunch of dogs chasing their tails. Now that’s entertainment!
“That means choosing truth over lies, hope over fear and progress over anger,” he said. “It means stepping up to vote for principled leaders—especially in the primaries. It means taking stock in who we listen to and what we ask of ourselves, thinking about what we want the future to look like.”
If you believe one word of that remark, Mr Kinzinger, then you should have no problem whatsoever seeing the lies and the fear being disseminated by Joe Biden and his administration—nor the anger that we, the American people, feel in regard to the total incompetence on grand display which extends to you and your partners in crime in Congress wasting time on this Jan 6th “investigative committee” which is nothing more than a charade.
If you were truly in search of the truth and what actually happened, you would be pursuing you Democrat colleagues. BLB, Antifa. and Mr Epps—but that isn’t going to happen because you ARE NOT in search of truth—you are consumed by Trump Derangement Syndrome and your sole intent is to malign and smear President Trump and his supporters—just for the hell of it.
Congratulations for not pursuing a Senate run—you show your incompetence quite well in the position you currently hold. If you would like to do something beneficial for once—RESIGN.
HE WOULDN’T know the truth, if it BIT HIS NOSE off.
Sorry I could give you only 5 stars.
He’s got the whole scenario backwards, the people rose up in 2016 and restored principled leadership to the party that had gotten away from the grass roots voters to be led by uninspiring leaders who presented uninspired and uninspiring candidates for office without the dynamics of bold leadership. As part of the elite establishment within the party he and the others can’t get over how they were rejected. As a result he and others like him have been an embarrassment to real republicans and a comfort to the Democrats!
Well, what do you know? What I see here is a win win situation.
He’s going to waste what little political life he has left fighting the imagined giant that is only a windmill, another fool’s journey that will lead to nowhere for the millions it will cost (okay, that’s not so go good, but…), and we’ll no longer have another RINO polluting our side.
This is good news.
Let me translate – as a RINO and Never Trumper, I know I could not compete for any higher position and just want to hopefully keep my seat I hva enow where I can still to damage to our country. Your Welcome…
That makes sense except he has already announced he won’t run for reelection. He knows he can’t win.
The moment he joined Cheney on the kangaroo court (Marxist lynch mob) he signed his political death warrant regarding anything Conservative, or even Republican. Maybe if he runs as a socialist he might get elected dog catcher.
There’s days, i wish that wasn’t just a proverbial ‘political death warrant’, but was something MUCH WORSE.