Politics & Government
Mark Kirk to Miss Republican Convention; Is This a Good Campaign Move?
The senator is skipping July's event in Cleveland so he can focus on his re-election. But is he also distancing himself from Donald Trump?
Republican Sen. Mark Kirk will be skipping his party's convention this summer in Cleveland in order to spend time on his own re-election bid in November.
"Sen. Kirk has his own re-election to win, so he will be working hard toward that goal, not going to the Republican convention in Ohio," Kevin Artl, Kirk's campaign manager, said in a statement released Thursday.
Kirk is facing a tough race to retain his U.S. Senate seat against Democratic challenger U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth. But missing the GOP convention might be more about political gamesmanship and not simply a desire to focus efforts on the campaign without distractions, some media outlets speculate.
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Rick Pearson, writing in the Chicago Tribune's Clout Street column, suggests that the Illinois senator's absence might also be a way for him to distance himself from the Republican presidential front runner, Donald Trump. In the past, Kirk has said he would support the divisive candidate for president if Trump were to receive the party's nomination.
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That show of support has come back to bite Kirk in the, er, campaign. In a recent political ad, Duckworth used news footage of Kirk answering a reporter's question about whether he would back Trump as the nominee.
"If he's the nominee, I certainly would," Kirk responds in the interview.
You can watch the entire ad, which Duckworth posted on Twitter.
@TammyforIL @markkirkhq @SenatorKirk Kirk is very bad for Illinois. Lets get rid of the clown Tammy!!
The Republican National Convention runs from July 18-21 at Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena. The U.S. general election is Nov. 8.
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