Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said he still considers himself a Republican, but only because “I don’t want to give up on that fight.”
He told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday, “This country needs two healthy parties: a healthy Democratic party and a healthy Republican. So I’m not going to give up that title.”
He said he had voted Democratic in the 2022 midterms and would do the same in 2024 if it’s a Donald Trump-Joe Biden matchup.
“I really believe it’s down to one issue on the ballot,” he said. “Not taxes, not even abortion, nothing. The one issue is: Do you believe in democracy, or do you believe in authoritarianism?”
Kinzinger told the Washington Post last year that he voted for Donald Trump in 2020, but he felt “dirty” doing it, and “it’s not something I can square away in my soul fully.”
Kinzinger was one of the most prominent critics of the former president in the House Republican conference before he retired from Congress earlier this year.
He was one of two Republicans who served on the Jan. 6 committee, and one of ten who voted to impeach Trump for his role in the insurrection.
“There’s little to no desire to bridge our differences, and unity is no longer a word we use,” Kinzinger said in 2021 when he announced he would not run for reelection. “It has also become increasingly obvious that in order to break the narrative, I cannot focus on both a reelection to Congress and a broader fight nationwide.”