OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Retiring GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois said in an interview published this week that he wasn’t sure what his next political move will be — but he’ll likely do something.
And that includes running against Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination if the former president decides to do so. In fact, Kinzinger said it’s something he’d “love” to do.
The Republican outcast and Air Force pilot told HuffPost about the potential of facing Trump in a primary: “I would love it. I really would.”
“Even if he crushed me, like in a primary, to be able to stand up and call out the garbage is just a necessary thing, regardless of who it is. … I think it’d be fun,” added Kinzinger, who very likely would face Trump if he also decides to jump in the 2024 mix since the former president is widely expected to make a third bid for a second term.
“I’ll make a decision when we get there if there’s a need and a desire. It’s truly not anything I’m planning right now, but I’m not going to rule it out,” Kinzinger said in discussing the likelihood of a White House run.
“Look, if we’re in a position, if it’s just terrible candidates and the country’s in a worse place? Maybe. But there’s no grand plan right now,” the Illinois representative added, according to The Hill.
Kinzinger tells @lizskalka it would be "fun" to run against Trump in a primary.
“Even if he crushed me…to be able to stand up and call out the garbage is just a necessary thing, regardless of who it is" https://t.co/QxZJUCt14p
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) April 18, 2022
Why Adam Kinzinger is willing to get “crushed” by Trump in 2024 https://t.co/vFvxC43B3V
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) April 19, 2022
The outlet continued:
Kinzinger, who has been a vocal critic of Trump and voted to impeach the former president, did say for certain that he does not want to run for a seat in the House again, telling HuffPost he is “exhausted.”
He also explained that he doesn’t know what’s next in his career, but is open to several possibilities.
“I don’t know. Maybe I would have run for governor. Maybe I would have run for Senate. Who knows? But yeah, my time in the House is, mercifully, coming to an end.”
Kinzinger, along with Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming), burned a bridge with many in his party for aligning with Democrats in their pursuit of the former president via the highly partisan Select Committee on Jan. 6, becoming the only two Republicans on the panel. The committee is ostensibly investigating the origins of the riot at the U.S. Capitol Building in January 2021.
Had he decided to run for reelection, it’s highly probable that Trump would have supported a primary challenger against him. Then again, he would have had a harder time after the state Democrat legislative majority redrew congressional districts following the 2020 Census, putting his once safely red seat at risk of being flipped.
Trump, meanwhile, has endorsed Wyoming attorney and state GOP activist Harriet Hageman in her bid to unseat Cheney in that state’s primary later this spring.
Last month, the Republican National Committee voted to censure both Kinzinger and Cheney, the latter once the No. 3 Republican lawmaker in the House.
“The leaders of the Republican Party have made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits he tried to overturn a presidential election and suggests he would pardon Jan. 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy,” Cheney said in response.
“I’m a constitutional conservative and I do not recognize those in my party who have abandoned the Constitution to embrace Donald Trump. History will be their judge. I will never stop fighting for our constitutional republic. No matter what,” she added.
“I’ve been a member of the Republican Party long before Donald Trump entered the field,’ he said, adding that his “core beliefs have not changed,” Kinzinger noted.
“Rather than focus their efforts on how to help the American people, my fellow Republicans have chosen to censure to lifelong Members of their party for simply upholding their oaths of office,” he said. “They’ve allowed conspiracies and toxic tribalism hinder their ability to see clear-eyed.”
“My efforts will continue to be focused on standing up for truth and working to fight the political matrix that’s led us to this point,” he said.
