House

Kinzinger: GOP will become ‘regional party’ if it doesn’t change

by Dominick Mastrangelo - 03/09/21 9:31 AM ET

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) is warning Republican leadership that it faces severe marginalization if it does not refocus its message toward American voters.

“If it doesn’t want to be changed, that’s a decision Republicans get to make,” Kinzinger told CNN. “If that’s the case long-term, I think we will lose elections and will be a regional party that won’t compete on the national stage.”

Kinzinger has in recent months emerged as one of his own party’s largest critics for what he says is a dangerous and indefensible posture beholden to former President Trump.

He was one of nearly a dozen House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump earlier this year after a mob of the former president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 while Congress was finalizing President Biden’s victory.

“I think part of saving the Republican Party is just being really clear about what the Republican Party has become,” Kinzinger said. “We have such a great history, I think, but now we’re off the rails.”

In January, the six-term congressman who represents former President Reagan’s hometown in Illinois, launched a political action committee (PAC) with the goal of rooting out “Trumpism” from the GOP.

“We’ve gotten into too many, you have to be this or this. I just want you to tell the American people the truth,” he said of the PAC in February. “And I want you to not peddle in conspiracies and use some optimism occasionally, that’s a pretty low bar, but it’s a low bar that eliminates a lot of people.”

Recent polling, however, shows a solid majority of Republican voters supportive of the former president, even after the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Late last month, Kinzinger said the GOP runs the risk of being reduced to minority status in both chambers in Congress “forever” if it does not make broad efforts to move on from Trump.

“I don’t know what that looks like, all I know is I can rest with real peace knowing that I’m going to fight as hard as I can to get a normal functioning Republican Party,” he said.

A pro-Trump Republican has announced her intention to primary Kinzinger in his next election.

Tags Adam Kinzinger Adam Kinzinger Donald Trump Joe Biden Politics trumpism