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Anti-Trump Republican Adam Kinzinger Furious After Redistricting Likely To Cost Him Job

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


Noted anti-Donald Trump Republican, Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger has spent the better part of the past two years attacking Trump, but now Democrats have stabbed him in the back.

And it is going to see one of House Speaker and California Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s favorite Republicans out of his job.

In what can be described as poetic justice Illinois Democrats have redrawn the districts in the state and have basically ended his Congressional career.

And Rep. Kinzinger was furious when he found out about it.

“I have proudly served six terms in the U.S. House and it has been an honor to do so,” he said on Twitter. “Following the release of the new congressional maps for Illinois, my team and I will spend some time looking them over and reviewing all of the options, including those outside the House. This redistricting process has been anything but transparent, which comes as no surprise to anyone. I believe the people of Illinois deserve better.”

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Mediaite reported.

Democrats in the Illinois General Assembly released a proposal earlier in the day with the proposed lines of the state’s congressional map for the next decade. Their party controls both of the state’s legislative chambers, along with the governor’s mansion and 13 House seats. Republicans hold five. The state is set to lose a seat when the next Congress convenes in 2023, and the new map makes it likely for Republicans to hold just three of those.

Kinzinger, who joined Congress in 2013, became one of the most prominent Republican allies to House Democrats toward the end of President Donald Trump’s term in office. He was one of 10 Republicans to vote in favor of Trump’s impeachment in January, and was one of just two selected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to serve on the House committee investigating events in the capital on Jan. 6.

Speculation began in August about redistricting and the likelihood of him losing his spot in Congress.

A newly minted congressional map will see the redrawing of districts and the elimination of Rep. Adam Kinzinger’s seat of power, effectively forcing the Republican-in-name-only to seek some other way to remain in public office in 2022.

The congressional map, which is being rolled out in Illinois, sees the removal of the Pelosi favorite’s district in the mostly blue state.

Should Kinzinger choose to remain in politics, he will have to run in an unfamiliar district or take a shot at the gubernatorial or one of the two Senate seats.

He may also opt to run against another incumbent — assuming he manages to even win the Republican primary, which is a long shot considering his status among Trump-supporting Republicans.

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According to Politico, House Democrats are hoping to maintain their lead in the 2022 midterms and are pushing states like Kinzinger’s home state of Illinois, one of the only few states where their party has complete control of redistricting, to redesign district maps to flush out the Republican opposition.

The Democrat party will have to support the 12 incumbents seeking reelection in order to hang onto the seat held by the retiring Rep. Cheri Bustos, and to turn GOP Rep. Rodney Davis’ seat for a new Democrat. Removing Kinzinger’s district is the easiest way to make that happen. Kinzinger’s district runs from Wisconsin to the Indiana border.

Democrats insist that the redistricting effort is being driven solely by geographical, and not political considerations.

The state’s declining population requires that Illinois lose one of its 18 congressional districts, and Democrats pursuing the effort need some of Kinzinger’s voters to support Democrat Rep. Lauren Underwood.

“Adam, right now, he and I get along great. What he’s doing, he’s doing. But if you look at the Republican electorate in any one of those districts — probably not,” said Republican Rep. Mike Bost when the publication asked if Kinzinger could win in a different seat.

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“It’d be hard,” said Bost.

Speaking to Politico, Kinzinger, who has become a pariah among Republicans loyal to former President Trump, said that he is not “losing sleep” over the possibility of losing his seat to the redistricting effort as the situation is out of his control.

“If I lose my district, we’ll take a look then,” he said, “but I’m not too freaked out.”

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