Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), one of the rare officials in the Republican Party willing to buck the party line on major issues, is throwing his support behind Democratic contenders in statewide races in key locales including Pennsylvania and Arizona.
The candidates Kinzinger is supporting could help defend the basic processes of democracy against GOP threats should they win — but if opponents in the races in which Kinzinger engaged are victorious this November, they could undercut these processes that underlie the functioning of democracy in the United States. These threats aren’t only in the form of undercutting election results. They could also impose or help implement suppressive measures around the electoral process, like the bills widely condemned as GOP voter suppression in states like Georgia and Texas. In other states, like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Democratic governors have vetoed suppressive measures approved by Republican state legislators changing the electoral process despite no real-world evidence pointing that direction.
New endorsements were revealed this week from Kinzinger’s organization Country First, which is supporting a bipartisan slate of candidates with an eye towards overcoming the polarization, dismissal of the facts, and antagonism towards legal guardrails that have defined much of what’s come out of the GOP in recent years. Candidates with Country First’s backing now include Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Utah independent Senate candidate Evan McMullin, Pennsylvania Democratic gubernatorial contender Josh Shapiro, and others, including additional candidates affiliated with the GOP and Democrats and without any party affiliation. Kinzinger’s organization is also backing Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs in the Arizona governor’s race, Brad Raffensperger in his bid for re-election as Georgia’s Secretary of State, and the Democrats in the races for Secretary of State in Nevada, Arizona, Minnesota, and Michigan, alongside others.
In multiple races, candidates are competing directly against the backdrop of post-2020 meddling efforts. In Michigan, state officials faced pressure including in court over the election results after Biden’s win there, despite the documented security backing it up, and in Georgia, Raffensperger faced direct pressure from Trump for action. In both states, Trump supporters also assembled ostensible slates of electoral votes for Trump despite Biden’s wins. These alternate electors, as they’ve been known, had no legal foundation. In Utah, Sen. Mike Lee (R) — against whom McMullin is running — supported the idea of state legislators getting behind alternate slates of electors, although the integrity of Biden’s win was well-established. Polling suggests the race between Lee and McMullin, the latter of whom is supported by the state Democratic Party, which didn’t put forward their own candidate this year, is within single digits.
Country First will be taking campaign action on behalf of their chosen candidates. “Country First will support campaigns with a tailored combination of fundraising, advertising, texting, grassroots engagement, and get-out-the-vote,” the organization’s website said. Kinzinger also personally addressed the endorsements. “Now more than ever, it’s critical we elect leaders up and down the ballot who are loyal to the Constitution and willing to be a bulwark for democracy – regardless of their political party affiliation,” the Congressman remarked. “We must set partisan politics and ideology aside in order to preserve our nation’s democracy and demand accountability in our leaders. I’m proud to endorse this slate of candidates that are ready to put our country and the American people first.”
