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On Eve of New Hampshire Primary, Here's How Adam Kinzinger Is Getting Involved

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  January 22, 2024 9:00 PM

Tuesday's New Hampshire primary is just about here. If former and potentially future President Donald Trump wins the Republican primary against former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, as he is expected to do, he's pretty much sealed the deal on winning the nomination. That hasn't stopped desperate Never Trumpers from engaging in last-ditch efforts, as is the case with former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL).

On Sunday night, posted a nearly 30-second ad to his X account calling on voters to withhold their support from Trump. He went with a particularly cringeworthy script, too. "Is there anything that will make you smile bigger than sending Trump to defeat?" the self-proclaimed "proud RINO" asked with an exaggerated sense of enthusiasm. "This is a once in a lifetime chance! Your vote in the primary matters more than ever, because together we can stop Trump. Imagine his orange face turning bright red when he sees he won't even make it to the general election," he continued, despite how the likelihood of that happening doesn't support Kinzinger's cheerful demeanor. "For eight years, Trump has been everywhere, and only you can change the channel," Kinzinger offered at the ad's end. 

"Your vote does matter," a message reads, telling viewers to "vote in the GOP primary." The ad is paid for by Kinzinger's Country First PAC.

Time is quickly running out for candidates not named Trump, though. The likely nominee came in first place in last Monday's Iowa Republican Caucus, with 51 percent of the vote. That same night, fourth place finisher Vivek Ramaswamy dropped out and endorsed Trump, with second place finisher Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis doing so just recently on Sunday. 

As our sister site of RedState highlighted, which also covered Sunday's video post, Kinzinger was also beside himself as he reacted on CNN to Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) endorsing Trump, claiming "I never expected this from Tim." Kinzinger even brought religion into it, noting "there is something that’s going on in people’s souls where it’s like, as the Bible says you know, what is to gain the whole world but lose your soul?" Kinzinger was particulary incensed that Scott did not wait until after New Hampshire, with Haley and Scott's state of South Carolina coming up on February 24.

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Scott had also run in the Republican primary but dropped out in November. He made the endorsement official Friday night during a rally in New Hampshire.

"The one thing it does do is it shows the momentum that Donald Trump has been doing--I’ll objectively say--a good job of showing momentum and it’s actually pretty disheartening," Kinzinger went on to admit.

If ever there was a time to put out such an ad, perhaps it should have been last summer or even last spring. Perhaps even over a year ago, considering that Trump announced he was running again in November 2022, though Trump has pretty much been the frontrunner all along as the defacto incumbent. 

RealClearPolling shows Trump leading by +18.2 in New Hampshire, with 54.9 percent support. That includes with DeSantis and his 7.5 percent support in the race though. As Leah covered, though, a CNN poll released just before DeSantis dropped out showed that a majority of those who chose DeSantis as their first choice had Trump as their second choice.

Despite acknowledging the "momentum" that Trump had after Iowa, Kinzinger reposted the start of a thread from GOP political consultant Mike Madrid looking to downplay Trump's victory in Iowa. The rest of the thread likewise looked to downplay any such momentum in New Hampshire as well.