Illinois GOP Rep and Trump critic Adam Kinzinger could LOSE his seat in Democrat congressional redistricting before the 2022 midterms
Adam Kinzinger could lose his House district as the Democratic Party in Illinois works to redistrict the state after receiving the 2020 census results, a Wednesday report revealed.
State lawmakers are preparing to roll out the new congressional map, likely to nix the Republican Trump critic's seat in Illinois' current 16th district, several sources close to the redistricting process told Politico.
Kinzinger told Politico he isn't 'losing sleep' over the new map, of which he has no control over.
'If I lose my district, we'll take a look then,' he said. 'But I'm not too freaked out.'
Although no official map has been released yet, draft copies of the new Illinois districts have emerged based on preliminary population counts – not the official Census Bureau numbers from the decennial survey.
Representative Adam Kinzinger could lose his House seat from redistricting in Illinois
Democrats are in charge of the redistricting for the 2020 census results, and are looking to get rid of the 16th district – outside the southwest of Chicago – as the state has to nix one due to population decreases
Illinois' declining population is leading to the state losing one of its 18 congressional districts.
Democrats are fully in charge of the redistricting process in Illinois as the party controls the General Assembly's House and Senate and the governor, J. B. Pritzker, who holds veto power over the new map, is also a Democrat.
The party will, of course, attempt to organize the new map to maximize gains for upcoming elections.
Kinzinger, although a staunch critic of former President Donald Trump, is still a Republican serving in a blue-leaning area in the southwest outskirts of Chicago.
The representative is also one of the two Republicans House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tapped to serve on her select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack after Republicans refused to cooperate with the probe by nominating their own panel members.
The other Republican on the committee is fellow Trump-critic Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming.
By getting rid of Illinois' 16th district, the land would get lumped into Democratic Representatives Lauren Underwood's and Cheri Bustos' districts. Bustos is retiring, so Democrats want to do all they can to make sure they hang onto the seat in next month's midterm elections.
Illinois Democrats need to back 12 incumbents running for reelection in 2022 while maintaining control of Bustos' district and try to flip Republican Representative Rodney Davis' red 13th district seat blue.
Democrats, according to Politico, see getting rid of Kinzinger's seat as the easiest way to achieve all of those goals.