Rethinking Republican Identity

Will Adam Kinzinger stay in the GOP? The retiring Congressman tells Newsweek and extremism could drive him away

- NAVEED JAMALI, ALEX J. ROUHANDEH and MAURA CURRIE

FOR REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN ADAM Kinzinger of Illinois, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the reaction of some of his House colleagues to it, has crystallized much of what he finds troubling lately about the GOP. And those concerns, in turn, have him questioning his own party affiliation.

“Without correcting course, there will be a moment at which I say, ‘OK, I’m no longer a Republican,’” says Kinzinger, who revealed his misgivings during a candid conversation earlier this month for the Newsweek podcast Declassified, hosted by editor at large Naveed Jamali.

While the U.S. response to the war in Ukraine has mostly united Congress around key bipartisan objectives, the conflict has also exposed ideological splintering among the two parties, as America’s far-left and far-right diverge from the consensus. Most recently, Democratic “Squad” members Cori Bush of Missouri and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota joined GOP Trump loyalists Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina and 12 other Republicans in voting against a U.S. ban on the import of oil, gas and coal from Russia, which passed the House last month in a 414-17 vote.

For the progressives, the objections centered on the potential harm that the proposed sanctions could have on the Russian people. For the Republicans, the vote mirrored past stances that the party’s far-right wing has taken as part of a Trump-led agenda to adopt a friendlier posture toward to Russia.