The political nonprofit organization aligned with Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), a staunch opponent of former President Donald Trump, is launching a candidate training program to recruit political leaders who share the group’s “pro-freedom, pro-democracy” agenda.
Kinzinger, a vocal critic of Trump’s stolen election claims, serves on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 ransacking of the Capitol by supporters of the 45th president. He is retiring from Congress at year’s end but is attempting to build a grassroots coalition capable of competing with the conservative movement loyal to Trump.
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Another step to recruit and train candidates was announced Monday by Country First PAC, a 501(c)4 organization founded and run by Kinzinger allies. The program, dubbed “Country First Academy,” aims to put candidates on the ballot for local, state, and federal offices, in addition to encouraging participation in elections as volunteers at polling places.
“It’s time for a new generation of pro-freedom, pro-democracy leaders to step up and fight the toxic partisanship that has hobbled our institutions and turned neighbors against each other,” Zach Hunter, executive director of Country First, said in a statement.
Kinzinger is a Republican with a reliably conservative voting record over nearly a dozen years in office. In 2020, the congressman voted for Trump despite misgivings that prevented him from backing the former president in 2016 because he could not reconcile supporting now-President Joe Biden. But Kinzinger finally broke with Trump over the 45th president’s unsupported claims that the last presidential election was stolen.
Had Kinzinger not lost his Illinois congressional seat in the redistricting process, his opposition to Trump and support for impeachment in January 2021 probably would have cost him reelection in any event. But Kinzinger signaled early last year that he plans to remain active in national politics, promoting like-minded candidates for office and building grassroots support to help elect them.
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In a press release, Country First said its candidate academy will:
- “Educate individuals interested in running for office or volunteering for election work”
- “Build the premier program to fill a national pipeline of prospective candidates and election workers at all levels from the Pro-Freedom, Pro-Democracy center”
- “Identify and work directly with potential candidates and election-worker volunteers”
- “Build and provide free, comprehensive, and widely accessible nonpartisan resources and training to candidates once they have officially declared and election workers once they volunteer”
