Democrats in the Illinois state legislature released their proposed new congressional district maps, which place Republican Adam Kinzinger in a Democratic district and force him to run in 2022 against an incumbent who is likely to defeat him.
Kinzinger, a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump who is also an enthusiastic member of the January 6 commission, might have expected Democrats to reward his service to their cause by preserving his far suburban Chicago district, the 16th.
Instead, the Democrats who are in charge of redrawing the map have divided the 16th district, putting Kinzinger in a new version of the 3rd district, which has been Democratic for decades and is currently represented by Rep. Marie Newman.
As the Illinois political news website Capitol Fax notes, Democrats also redrew the 16th district to pit current Republican incumbents Mary Miller and Darin LaHood against one another.
As in 2010, Democrats also left the state with one largely Latino district instead of two, despite rapid growth in the Hispanic population. That means one Latino lawmaker will remain the gatekeeper to the community, preserving the political machine hierarchy at the expense of greater Latino representation.
The 2020 Census left Illinois with just 17 seats, after it lost population for the first time in 200 years. Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) reneged on a campaign promise to use an independent redistricting commission to redraw the congressional map.
Kinzinger is no stranger to Democrats’ redistricting shenanigans. After he defeated a Democratic incumbent to win his seat in 2010 with the backing of the conservative Tea Party, Democrats redrew his district to put his house in a Democratic district.
Rather than retire, Kinzinger decided to challenge veteran incumbent Republican Don Manzullo, a conservative favorite. He won the 2012 primary with the help of House GOP leaders, and has clashed with conservative Republicans in the years since.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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