Adam Kinzinger

Early life, education, and early political career

Kinzinger was born in 1978 in Kankakee, the son of Betty Jo, an elementary school teacher, and Rus Kinzinger, a CEO of faith-based organizations. He was raised in Bloomington, Illinois. He graduated from Normal Community West High School in 1996 and earned a bachelor's degree from Illinois State University in 2000.

In 1998, while a student at Illinois State, Kinzinger ran for election as a County Board member in McLean County, Illinois. He won, defeating an incumbent County Board member. Kinzinger remained on the board until 2003.

Kinzinger worked as an intern for former U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald shortly after his graduation from Illinois State, as part of a program offered there.

Military service

In 2003, Kinzinger joined the United States Air Force. He was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in November 2003 and later awarded his pilot wings. Kinzinger was initially a KC-135 Stratotanker pilot and flew missions in South America, Guam, Iraq and Afghanistan. He later switched to flying the RC-26 surveillance aircraft and was stationed in Iraq twice.

Kinzinger has served in the Air Force Special Operations Command, Air Combat Command, Air Mobility Command, and Air National Guard and was progressively promoted to his current rank of Major.

2010

In January 2009, Kinzinger met Republican U.S. Congressmen Mike Pence, Mark Kirk, and Peter Roskam to discuss a possible run for Congress. Kinzinger decided to run in Illinois' 11th congressional district, held by Democratic U.S. Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson. He started campaigning full-time in May 2009, when he returned home from his 3rd tour in Iraq. In the early autumn, Kinzinger held eight town halls across the 11th congressional district that were attended by nearly 2,000 people. He was endorsed by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. On February 2, 2010, Kinzinger won the five-candidate Republican primary with 64% of the vote.

In the general election, he was endorsed by the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. On November 2, 2010, Kinzinger defeated Halvorson 57%–43%.

2012

After redistricting, Kinzinger's district was eliminated, and a large slice of its territory was merged with the Rockford-based 16th District, represented by fellow Republican Don Manzullo, a 67-year-old politician first elected in 1992. Kinzinger had represented 31% of the district, while Manzullo had represented at least 44% of the district, prior to redistricting. In the March Republican primary, Kinzinger defeated Manzullo, 56%–44%. In the general election, Kinzinger defeated Democrat Wanda Rohl, 62%–38%.

2014

In 2014, Kinzinger was targeted by the Club for Growth. In the Republican primary, he faced David Hale, a nurse and founder of the Rockford Tea Party. Kinzinger won with 78% of the vote.

In the general election, Kinzinger faced Democratic nominee Randall Olsen; he won with 71% of the vote.

2016

Kinzinger won the March 2016 Republican primary with 100% of the vote. No candidates filed for the Democratic primary for his seat.

On August 3, 2016, Kinzinger announced publicly that he would not support GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. "I'm an American before I'm a Republican," he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, adding that "I'm a Republican because I believe that Republicanism is the best way to defend the United States of America… [Trump] throws all of these Republican principles on their head." Kinzinger noted, however, that he also would not support Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, and was mulling other options.

Kinzinger introduced the U.S. House version of the bipartisan bill Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act. The United States Senate version was written in March 2016 by U.S. Senators Chris Murphy and Rob Portman. After the 2016 U.S. presidential election, worries grew that Russian propaganda spread and organized by the Russian government swayed the outcome of the election, and representatives in the U.S. Congress took action to safeguard the National security of the United States by advancing legislation to monitor incoming propaganda from external threats. On November 30, 2016, legislators approved a measure within the National Defense Authorization Act to ask the U.S. State Department to take action against foreign propaganda through an interagency panel. The legislation authorized funding of $160 million over a two-year-period. The initiative was developed through the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act.

Tenure

In 2010 Kinzinger signed a pledge sponsored by Americans for Prosperity promising to vote against any global warming legislation that would raise taxes.

In 2013, Kinzinger sponsored the Veteran Emergency Medical Technician Support Act of 2013, H.R. 235 in the 113th Congress. This legislation would make it easier for veterans with emergency medical technician training in the military to get civilian licenses to perform the same job outside of the military. The bill passed the House of Representatives by a voice vote on February 12, 2013 and was referred to the United States Senate.

On June 5, 2014, Kinzinger introduced a bill (H.R. 4801; 113th Congress) which would require the United States Secretary of Energy to prepare a report on the effects that thermal insulation has on both energy consumption and systems for providing potable water in federal buildings. Kinzinger argued that "with the federal government being the single largest consumer of energy in the country, doing our best to maximize the potential savings from improved insulation systems is a commonsense step I think everybody can agree on."

Kinzinger is a member of both the Republican Study Committee and the more moderate Republican Main Street Partnership.

Conservative Review graded Kinzinger's 2016 voting record as an "F", with a Liberty Score of 35%. Out of 247 Republicans in the House of Representatives, 37 received a lower grade (had a more liberal voting record). The American Conservative Union (ACU) awarded Kinzinger a somewhat higher score, giving him a Lifetime Rating of 59.60 out of 100. Kinzinger was ranked as the 40th most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the 114th United States Congress (and the third most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois) in the Bipartisan Index created by The Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy that ranks members of the United States Congress by their degree of bipartisanship (by measuring the frequency each member's bills attract co-sponsors from the opposite party and each member's co-sponsorship of bills by members of the opposite party).

Kinzinger voted Yes on the 2017 GOP Healthcare Bill, a bill that would repeal major parts of Obamacare

Committee assignments

Caucus memberships

Personal life

In 2006, the Wisconsin Red Cross named Kinzinger "Hero of the Year" for wrestling a knife-wielding man to the ground and disarming him. The man had cut the throat of a woman on a street in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Recalling the event in an interview, Kinzinger said "The whole time it was, to me, kind of a done deal that I was going to get stabbed in the process, but I knew that this wasn't something I could wake up to ... everyday with that memory that I watched her die." The woman survived. For this act Kinzinger also received the United States Air Force Airman's Medal and the National Guard's Valley Forge Cross for Heroism.

In 2011, Kinzinger was ranked 5th on The Hill's annual "50 Most Beautiful People" list, which ranks anyone who regularly works on Capitol Hill.

In 2011, Kinzinger became engaged to a fellow pilot, Air Force Captain Riki Meyers; the engagement was called off in 2012.