The Illinois Republican Party issued a mild rebuke to Republican U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, saying it disagreed with his vote to impeach former President Donald Trump as it sought to focus on picking a new chairman who could unify the party.
The state GOP said the actions of Kinzinger and nine other Republicans who voted to impeach Trump “created widespread division and anger among the Republican Party both nationally and here in Illinois.”
But the party also said the political stakes in 2022 were too great, with Democrats including Sen. Tammy Duckworth and Gov. J.B. Pritzker heading the statewide ballot, to “engage in a circular firing squad.”
“We strongly disagree with any Republican, Congressman Adam Kinzinger included, who voted to impeach President Trump or those who vote to convict him in the U.S. Senate, but we will let the voters be the arbiters of any vote taken by an elected official,” read the Friday statement.
Kinzinger, a five-term lawmaker from Channahon, became increasingly outspoken against Trump and the former president’s supporters after Trump falsely maintained that the Nov. 3 election was stolen from him through widespread ballot fraud. He also contended Trump’s actions sparked the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, leading to his vote in support of impeachment.
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Kinzinger last Sunday announced the formation of a “country first” political action committee and movement aimed at Republicans looking to move past Trump and his influence on the party.
The Illinois GOP’s statement came a day after Kinzinger was one of 11 Republicans who joined Democrats in voting to strip freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, of her committee assignments over her past support for false conspiracy theories involving QAnon, the 9/11 terrorist attacks and mass-shooting incidents.
On social media Friday, Kinzinger retweeted a tweet from Greene in which she called the Democrats and the Republicans who voted with them “morons” for giving her free publicity.
“This is why I voted yes,” Kinzinger said. “There is no remorse here for her past comments. Just a huge desire to be famous.”
The state party’s rebuke of Kinzinger falls short of actions taken by other state parties against their GOP congressional members who voted for impeachment. Some have issued a censure, a statement of strong disapproval but carrying no formal penalties, against those representatives.
In Illinois, LaSalle County Republicans voted to censure Kinzinger, whose sprawling 16th Congressional District includes the county.
Kinzinger spokeswoman Maura Gillespie said Kinzinger plans to speak early next week with GOP county chairmen and committee members in his district “to hear their concerns and share with them where he stands on things.”
“Congressman Kinzinger looks forward to building on that solid foundation as they all work together to navigate these next four years under a Democrat majority and through the course of this pandemic, keeping the focus on serving the community and the shared interests of the party,” she said.
Kinzinger’s actions had been expected to become a subject of discussion on Saturday when top state Republicans convened in Bolingbrook and picked former Illinois Gaming Board Chairman Don Tracy of Springfield as a replacement for Chairman Tim Schneider. But the GOP statement made it clear that it wanted the meeting to focus on the future and not on Kinzinger.
“The stakes of the 2022 election here in Illinois — defeating Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, winning back congressional seats, and electing Republican judges to the Illinois Supreme Court — are too monumental to engage in a circular firing squad,” the statement said.
“We cannot play into Democrat hands by fighting among each other, so we encourage all Republicans to focus on the future rather than relitigating the past,” it said.
Tracy bested two other candidates for party chairman: Scott Gryder, the Kendall County Board chairman from Oswego; and Lake County GOP Chairman Mark Shaw, who unsuccessfully sought the state party chairmanship two years ago and agreed to end his challenge in exchange for being named a state co-chairman. Tracy unsuccessfully ran for the Republican lieutenant governor nomination in 2014.
Schneider, a former Cook County commissioner and Hanover Township trustee from Streamwood, had been chairman since May 2014, when he was picked by then-governor candidate Bruce Rauner.
