AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades
- In an interview with Rolling Stone, Kinzinger said that he was "doing great" after announcing his retirement from Congress.
- Kinzinger refuted the idea that Democrats lost in Virginia because of the infrastructure impasse.
- The congressman said that Democrats need to listen to "disaffected" voters who used to support them.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger said in a recent interview that Democrats were misguided in attributing their loss in the Virginia gubernatorial race to their inability to shepherd President Joe Biden's infrastructure bills through Congress before Election Day, saying that the loss is rather a sign of the party's disconnect from "the voices of the heartland."
During a conversation with Rolling Stone, the Illinois Republican said that Democratic underperformance was not about machinations on Capitol Hill, but was the result of everyday Americans who decided to back a candidate who sought to address their day-to-day concerns.
In the Virginia race, first-time Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin, a former private equity executive, defeated former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe in a state that had long been a conservative bastion but has trended blue over the past decade.
Youngkin's victory last week – along with GOP wins in the lieutenant governor and attorney general races – marked the first statewide election triumphs for the party since 2009.
"I think [Democrats] are kind of chasing the wrong thing at the moment," he told the magazine. "I think this idea that Glenn Youngkin won [Virginia governor] because the Democrats didn't pass a giant spending bill is probably not very accurate. I think they're not hearing the voices of the heartland, the people that are disaffected that used to vote for them."
For months, progressives were committed to passing the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and the larger Democratic-led social spending package in tandem, while moderates sought passage of the bipartisan bill untethered to the party's larger bill. The bipartisan bill easily passed the Senate in August.
However, after the Virginia loss - the party pushed forward on a House vote for the infrastructure bill - with the measure passing in a 228-206 vote, boosted by the support of 13 Republican members, including Kinzinger.
A final House vote for the reconciliation bill, known as the Build Back Better Act, has not yet been scheduled.
Kinzinger, who serves on the House committee investigating January 6, was one of 10 House Republicans who crossed party lines to support former President Donald Trump's impeachment for "incitement of insurrection" over his role in the riot at the Capitol.
The congressman has been lauded by Democrats on Capitol Hill for taking on Trump and denouncing the former president's unsubstantiated election claims.
However, back in Illinois, the Democrats who control the legislature - and the redistricting process - drew new congressional lines that put Kinzinger in the same district as fellow Republican Darin LaHood.
The congressman has opted to retire from Congress at the end of his current term.
When Kinzinger was asked how he felt about his predicament, he said that he was "not disappointed" and is "doing great," but had some sharp words for the Democrats who engineered the changes to his district.
"I blame Democrats for drawing that map," he said. "And I think that what it says to people is that you want Republican allies in the defense of democracy until it's politically advantageous to not. To me, that means they don't understand how real the threat to democracy is."