WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, a critic of Donald Trump who is one of two Republicans on the panel investigating the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol attack, announced Friday that he will not seek re-election next year.
He had previously declared his candidacy, according to Ballotpedia.
The military veteran, who won a long-shot suburban congressional district a decade ago, became one of a handful of Republicans who voted to impeach Trump on the charge of inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. He joins a small but growing list of GOP Trump critics in Congress deciding to bow out.
Kinzinger, who formed a political action committee called Country First early this year, announced his decision in a video early Friday, saying the “time is now” to move on. “My disappointment in the leaders that don’t lead is huge,” he said.
Also: Trump and allies work to rebrand Jan. 6 rioters as patriots, heroes and martyrs
Republicans are well-positioned to pick up the House majority in next year’s midterm elections, but the departure of Kinzinger, a former Air Force lieutenant colonel and an Air National Guard pilot, along with that of other traditional conservatives, casts a shadow over the party now led by Trump and allies.
MarketWatch contributed.
Read on: ‘Big Lie’ allegiance dividing Republicans into Trump loyalists and a Cheney-Romney-Kinzinger wing
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