WASHINGTON — Representative Adam Kinzinger, who emerged this year as one of the pre-eminent Republican critics of former President Donald J. Trump,
WASHINGTON — Representative Adam Kinzinger, who emerged this year as one of the pre-eminent Republican critics of former President Donald J. Trump, announced Friday that he would not seek re-election in 2022.
Mr. Kinzinger’s electoral fate was largely sealed late Thursday when Illinois Democrats, in an 11th-hour vote shortly before midnight, adopted a new congressional map that eliminated the Republican-majority district Mr. Kinzinger represented for the last decade.
Mr. Kinzinger, who was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Mr. Trump after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, announced his departure from Congress in a five-minute video in which he reiterated his opposition to Mr. Trump’s influence on the Republican Party and reflected on his first congressional victory during the 2010 Tea Party wave.
“I also remember during that campaign saying that if I ever thought it was time to move on from Congress, I would,” Mr. Kinzinger said. “And that time is now.”
Mr. Kinzinger has for months sought to create a larger national platform for himself beyond his district, which arcs in a crescent along the Chicago exurbs from the Illinois border with Wisconsin to the Indiana state line. He once again implied he may seek higher office. Illinois has contests for governor and the Senate in 2022, and no leading Republican candidates for either.
“It has also become increasingly obvious to me that in order to break the narrative, I cannot focus on both a re-election to Congress and a broader fight nationwide,” he said. “This isn’t the end of my political future, but the beginning.”
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