Adam Kinzinger may not be running for reelection this year, but that isn’t stopping him from doing what he still can to challenge election deniers on every possible front.
The retiring GOP congressman announced late last year that he wouldn’t stand for reelection, as the likelihood of him winning a GOP primary grew thinner thanks to his work on the January 6 committee.
But even though he personally won’t be taking on a supporter of Donald Trump’s conspiracies about the 2020 election, he’s pushing his way into races where some of those same people are seeking office.
As a result, his Country 1st PAC announced a slate of endorsements on Tuesday that included several Democrats running for secretary of State and other statewide positions with oversight over elections or other state officials.
The Illinois Republican is supporting Democrats for secretary of State in Arizona, Nevada, Minnesota and Michigan, while also supporting Democrats for governor in Pennsylvania and Arizona. He notably did not extend an endorsement to Michigan’s incumbent Gov Gretchen Whitmer, who is running for reelection against 2020 fraud believer Tudor Dixon.
Mr Kinzinger also endorsed the independent (but Democrat-supported) US Senate candidacy of Evan McMullin against Sen Mike Lee in Utah, as well as Clint Smith, an independent running to unseat Congressman Andy Biggs of Arizona.
His notable Republican endorsements of the bunch included Lisa Murkowski, incumbent US senator from Alaska, and Brad Raffensperger, the GOP Georgia secretary of State who stood up to Donald Trump in 2020 and refused to help him “find” thousands of votes that supposedly would have shifted the balance of the state in his favour.
The congressman has not announced his post-congressional plans following the end of his term next January, but some have speculated that Mr Kinzinger is eager to remain in the anti-Trump conservative political sphere and may make a turn into a pundit as some of his soon-to-be-fellow former lawmakers have done in recent years.
