After Rep. Liz Cheney’s career as a conservative Republican congresswoman nears its end — she lost her Wyoming primary in August by more than 37 points — the former House Republican Conference chair has reassessed her partisan loyalties.
In fact, it was just a couple of weeks ago when the vice chair of the House’s Jan. 6 committee not only publicly criticized her own party’s election deniers, she also expressed a willingness to support Democrats in key races in order to defeat radical GOP conspiracy theorists.
Partisanship, Cheney said, “has to have a limit.”
As it turns out, her fellow Republican on the House select committee appears to be thinking along the same lines. The Washington Post noted this morning:
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), a fierce critic of former president Donald Trump, is out with a list of a dozen candidates endorsed by his leadership PAC, Country First. Half of them are Democrats.
In terms of top-of-the-ticket races, Kinzinger’s leadership PAC backed two Democratic gubernatorial candidates: Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro and Arizona’s Katie Hobbs. It’s no coincidence that both Democrats are running against right-wing election deniers in their statewide contests.
But just as notable is the fact that Kinzinger’s operation also threw its support behind four Democrats who are secretary of state candidates: Nevada’s Cisco Aguilar, Michigan’s Jocelyn Benson, Arizona’s Adrian Fontes and Minnesota’s Steve Simon.
Naturally, the Illinois Republican backed plenty of candidates from his own party, too, but some of these selections stand out for related reasons: Kinzinger’s leadership PAC is supporting Sen. Lisa Murkowski in Alaska, for example, as part of her race against a Trump-backed election denier. Also getting support is Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whom the former president both pressured as part of an anti-election scheme and tried to defeat in a GOP primary.
What’s more, Kinzinger’s operation also endorsed one U.S. Senate candidate: Evan McMullin’s independent candidacy in Utah against incumbent Republican Sen. Mike Lee.
As regular readers might recall, CNN released text messages Lee sent to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in the days and weeks after the 2020 presidential election, showing the Utahan allegedly partnering with Donald Trump’s team to explore ways to reject American voters’ verdict.
“Now more than ever, it’s critical we elect leaders up and down the ballot who are loyal to the Constitution and willing to be a bulwark for democracy — regardless of their political party affiliation,” Kinzinger said in a statement.
I don’t doubt this will lead to another round of partisan accusations about Kinzinger being a “RINO” (Republican In Name Only), but let’s not forget that the Illinois Republican voted with the Trump White House roughly 90% of the time.
He also apparently thinks voters should elect candidates who accept election results.
The House Jan. 6 committee is holding its ninth public hearing on Thursday, Oct. 13 at 1 p.m. ET. Get expert analysis in real time on our live blog at msnbc.com/jan6hearings.
