Few people outside of Illinois had heard of Rep. Adam Kinzinger before he became one of former President Donald Trump’s biggest critics within the GOP. Now, everyone knows who he is and what he thinks about his Republican colleagues. According to Republican candidate Catalina Lauf, that’s not a good thing.
Lauf, a small business owner and former Trump appointee, is one of several Republicans challenging Kinzinger for his seat in the 2022 midterm election. Her campaign focuses on three things: fighting out-of-control Democratic spending, promoting thoughtful and realistic immigration reform, and stopping Republicans like Kinzinger from “enabling” the Democratic agenda.
“My biggest issue was not just Kinzinger’s vote to impeach Trump, but his rhetoric over the past year — bashing Trump while in office but also now bashing the entire Republican Party,” she told the Washington Examiner. “That’s not servant leadership if he’s enabling and being another talking head for the far Left.”
There is no doubt Kinzinger has become much more vocal about his disagreements with Trump and the Republicans who support him. Unfortunately, some of his criticism has become downright petty.
See here:
What a child. Side note: this is all about outrage for money and fame. Literally all she does pic.twitter.com/6jRCYkfo5l
— Adam Kinzinger (@AdamKinzinger) September 30, 2021
But as is often the case, Kinzinger’s opposition to Trump stops when the voting begins. FiveThirtyEight reports Kinzinger has voted in line with Trump’s positions 90% of the time. The only times he really broke from the party were to impeach Trump and support Democrats’ Jan. 6 commission. Otherwise, his voting record isn’t all that different from, say, Rep. Lauren Boebert’s.
This is part of the reason he’s enjoyed such strong support from his district, which went for Trump in both 2016 and 2020. But Lauf is right about one thing: Kinzinger doesn’t go on CNN to talk about the 90% of Trump’s agenda he supported — he focuses only on the 10% he disliked. At what point do his constituents get tired of the performance?
Lauf said they already are.
“People are so sick of Adam not only saying negative things about the president but also using his platform to enable the Democrats. He’s completely out of touch with the constituency — he has not been around, no one can get a hold of him. They’re sick of this establishment class career politicians who do absolutely nothing for the people who elected them,” she said.
Kinzinger’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Luckily for Kinzinger, he might never have to find out how his district really feels — not if Illinois Democrats have their way. There’s a good chance his district will disappear when state Democrats submit their final redistricting map. It means he would either have to seek reelection in a different neighboring district that is Trumpier than his or run for a different office, such as the governorship or a Senate seat.
At the very least, that would give him the chance to decide whether he really still wants to be a Republican — because right now, I’m not sure he even knows.
