Former Trump Aide to Run Primary Challenge against Kinzinger
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Representative Adam Kinzinger (R., Ill.) will face a primary challenge from a former Trump administration aide as the pro-Trump faction of the GOP looks to oust Republicans, such as Kinzinger, who voted in support of the former president’s second impeachment.
Catalina Lauf, who served in the Department of Commerce under the Trump administration, launched a bid Thursday to oust Kinzinger from his seat in the 16th congressional district of Illinois.
“I never thought I’d primary a fellow Republican, but is Congressman Kinzinger really a Republican anymore? He isn’t and we have the proof,” the 27-year-old challenger said in a campaign announcement video.
Lauf said her 42-year-old opponent is a “weak-kneed, establishment Republican” who “cares more about his next MSNBC appearance than the voters who elected him.”
She claimed Kinzinger does not support the “America First” movement, noting his “one in three votes” in Congress that have sided with House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.)
“Instead of being in our fight, Adam betrayed his constituents for a life in the D.C. swamp,” said Lauf, who branded herself the “anti-AOC.”
She blasts her “Fake Republican” opponent for backing the “phony impeachment hoax for a president who has already left office.”
“He said impeachment was ‘necessary to save America.’ What?” Lauf said. “You know what I think is necessary to save America, Adam? Setting term limits for people like you and the rest of your friends out. Six terms in Congress is enough.”
Kinzinger is one of ten House Republicans who supported Trump’s impeachment on the charge of “incitement of insurrection” after a mob of the former president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol last month.
Others who supported impeachment, including Representative Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.) and Representative Anthony Gonzalez (R., Ohio), are likely to face primary challenges from pro-Trump Republican candidates as well.
Gonzalez is expected to face a primary challenge from a former Trump aide, Max Miller, who served in the White House.
Miller has reportedly been in discussion with top Republican donors in Ohio and other Republican leaders since leaving the White House last month, according to Politico. Miller, who is from northeastern Ohio, recently purchased a house in Rocky River, which is inside Gonzalez’s 16th district, according to the report.
As for Lauf, she says she will focus on a number of issues, if elected, including “social media censorship,” “election integrity,” “freedom of speech,” “gun rights,” “illegal immigration,” and “keeping the economy going.”
Lauf is the daughter of a Guatemalan immigrant mother and a small-business-owner father.
This marks Lauf’s second bid for Congress, having run in the 14th congressional district of Illinois in 2020. State senator Jim Oberweis beat out Lauf in a crowded primary to become the GOP candidate, but ultimately lost in the general election against incumbent representative Lauren Underwood, a Democrat, by less than 2 percent.
