GOP Trump critic Adam Kinzinger isn’t ruling out presidential bid as he leaves Congress

‘If you’re a Republican here in our state, it’s not easy unless you embrace Trump,’ Illinois Democrat says

Illinois Republican Representative and Trump critic Adam Kinzinger is now considering whether to run for the Senate, governor, or the White House after announcing that he won’t seek reelection to the House of Representatives.

But there are strong doubts if he can make his way forward in today’s GOP as an anti-Trump conservative who was just one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach the former president after the insurrection on 6 January.

He told CNN that he will “probably” decide by January if he’ll make a run for the Senate or the governor’s mansion.

“The key is, how do we restore the honour of the party in the country?” he said, adding that he “definitely” wouldn’t rule out a 2024 White House run.

In order to win a Republican primary and become the party’s nominee in any race, he would have to convince a GOP base still very much attached to former President Donald Trump. Illinois is also a fairly blue state, where few Republicans have won statewide races in the last 10 years.

“It would be very hard. If you’re a Republican here in our state, it’s not easy unless you embrace Trump. So that’s question number one,” Illinois Democratic Rep Raja Krishnamoorthi told CNN. “And question number two is, do you embrace a lot of the policies that are popular in Illinois?”

“So I’m not sure what the path is,” he added.

“I never rule anything out,” the 43-year-old said about a possible White House run.

“During the Trump administration, no one called me more for a job,” the Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told CNN, saying that Mr Kinzinger had asked him about becoming secretary of the Air Force in the Trump administration and to “put a word in for him” with Mr Trump.

“Two down, eight to go!” Mr Trump said in a statement when Mr Kinzinger said he would leave Congress, noting the number of House Republicans who voted to impeach him who then announced they would leave Congress. Ohio Rep Anthony Gonzalez announced earlier this year that he wouldn’t be seeking reelection.

“This isn’t the end of my political future, but the beginning,” Mr Kinzinger said as he announced he was leaving the House. He has said that his decision to leave was partly based on the reconstruction of the Illinois congressional map based on the 2020 census, which would combine two Republican districts.

Conservative Republican Rep Tom Rice from South Carolina, who also voted to impeach Mr Trump, called Mr Kinzinger a “brave soul” and said there was still room for someone like him in the GOP.

“He and Donald Trump are never going to be on the same page, but it’s a big tent,” he said.

Mr Kinzinger launched the political action committee “Country First” earlier this year in an effort to work against Mr Trump and his lies about the election, which he has called a “cancer” on the Republican Party.

Fellow Illinois Republican Rep Rodney Davis told CNN: “The one thing I know about Adam: he puts his mind to something, he’s gonna do it – whether I agree with 100 per cent, whether I disagree with him. So if he decided to run for another office, I know he would give it his all.”