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Kinzinger Isn’t Ruling Out Bid for Illinois Governor or Senator

Kinzinger Isn’t Ruling Out Bid for Illinois Governor or Senator

Representative Adam Kinzinger, one of former President Donald Trump’s chief GOP antagonists and the only House Republican to vote last week for a “clean” debt limit increase, isn’t ruling out a bid for a Senate seat from Illinois or a campaign for governor.

Kinzinger, appearing Tuesday on Bloomberg Television’s “Balance of Power with David Westin,” said those potential alternatives are “not something I’m planning for at this moment.”

Kinzinger Isn’t Ruling Out Bid for Illinois Governor or Senator

But he added, “I’m certainly not ruling it out,” noting that Democrats control the process of drawing new congressional lines in Illinois, with more details on that expected in the next week.

He said he’s putting what happens “in God’s hands,” adding, “I will not give up the fight for this country.” 

Kinzinger didn’t discuss a time frame for any potential statewide race. Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth and Governor J.B. Pritzker, both Democrats, are up for re-election next year. 

Kinzinger, who voted to impeach Trump and is one of two Republicans appointed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, said he doesn’t know where the Republican Party is headed. But he said he believes many Americans feel left out of both parties.

Debt, Taxes

Kinzinger continued during the program to break with congressional Republican leaders on raising the debt ceiling.

“The fact is we’re $30 trillion, basically, in debt,” he said. “And the only reason that that basically is sustained is that people have faith in that.” But he said people’s faith starts to shake once the debt limit is actually hit. “That’s when the real debt-crisis hits.”

“There’s a lot of things you can play politics on. I think this is one of those that, really, you just can’t,” he said.

Kinzinger said he’d be “excited” to vote for the Senate-passed infrastructure bill that would deliver $550 billion in new spending for traditional projects like roads and bridges, and that, “Frankly, that’s what the president should be passing, Democrats should pass. They could go out and take the win on it.”

But he said he was less enthusiastic about the broader package of social programs Democrats want to link to that bill, underscoring that they can’t agree on the price tag.

“When you have, you know, the Democratic Party saying that they don’t know what the number is, number doesn’t matter. And they’re saying things like it’s over 10 years, and we’re going to raise taxes to pay for it,” he said.

“I guess if they’re going to pass $3 trillion -- I have no say on it. I’d much rather they pay for it. But in terms of raising taxes to do it, I just think it’s going to be a double hit,” he said. “The reality is we have so much debt there may be a tax increase in the future” and “we have to be cautious.”

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