Illinois Democrats praise former GOP congressman Adam Kinzinger for making DNC speech

A partisan United Center crowd delivered its booming adoration to former six-term Illinois Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger for delivering a rousing, never-Trump message tonight.

The former member congressman who once represented Will County and a large segment of northern Illinois carried an important symbolic role for Democrats, who positioned him a few speakers ahead of presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

Kinzinger voted to impeach Trump, served on the House January 6th select committee and is now backing Harris’ candidacy – resume entries Democrats were all too eager to highlight in a bid to draw independents and displaced Republicans away from Trump.

“The Republican Party is no longer conservative. It has switched its allegiance — from the principles that gave it purpose to a man whose only purpose is himself,” Kinzinger said.

“Donald Trump is a weak man pretending to be strong,” Kinzinger said, unleashing a huge roar from the crowd.

“He is a small man pretending to be big,” Kinzinger said to another roar. “ He is a faithless man pretending to be righteous. He is a perpetrator who can’t stop playing the victim. He…puts on quite a show. But there’s no real strength there.

Kinzinger was one of several Republican never-Trumpers to take the stage at the convention this week. They included Georgia’s former lieutenant governor, an Arizona mayor and a one-time White House press secretary for Trump.

Even though they once were on opposite ends of the political spectrum, members of Illinois’ congressional delegation are praising Kinzinger for speaking his conscience even if it’s meant becoming a pariah in a big swath of the GOP.

“I can’t thank him enough for his courage, for his steadfastness, his support for democracy and his principles. I’m so grateful to him,” U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky told WBEZ.

Democratic Congressman Sean Casten respects that courage, too, and said the Trump-led GOP’s response to Kinzinger is truly grievous.

“To my mind, the tragedy of Adam Kinzinger is that by voting to defend democracy, he was excommunicated from his own party,” Casten said.

Dave McKinney covers Illinois politics for WBEZ and was the longtime Springfield bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times.