Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk won’t be attending the Republican National Convention in July, instead opting to stay home and focus on his re-election.
In an interview on WGN Radio’s “The Roe Conn Show,” Kirk offered a funny reason at first for avoiding the convention.
“I’ve got to really do my hair that week,” he said in the interview, which was first highlighted by Buzzfeed News. “Make sure that my hair is just perfect.”
“I’ll be back home in Illinois, talking to the people of Illinois, and running for re-election, very much focusing on Illinois and its issues and not hanging out with those 16 jamokes who are running for president,” the freshman senator said more seriously, referring to Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
Later in the interview he explained how Trump’s nomination would be a “riverboat gamble.”
“It’s mainly just to focus on the issues at hand and make sure that everybody who is leaning every which way with the riverboat gamble that comes with the Trump candidacy and to make sure that I can focus on just Illinois, only Illinois, and completely my state only,” Kirk said, adding that he had not been coordinating with the Republican National Committee should Trump be the party’s nominee.
“I actually don’t see what particular good the RNC adds to the equation. Being party officials, you can’t really get stuff going in Washington without bipartisan action. So I start off my service to Illinois by always making sure I am in partnership with a Democrat,” Kirk said.
Kirk is up against Democratic Rep. Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq veteran who represents Illinois’ 8th District.
