Dan Lipinski, a former Democratic congressman from Illinois, is set to qualify for the ballot as an independent even though he has no plans of running.
Lipinski made the announcement on his personal Twitter account earlier this week, saying that volunteers collected over the necessary number of signatures. Illinois requires candidates running for Congress who are registered with a ballot-qualified political party to collect 400 valid signatures. Running as an independent significantly increases that requirement to 5,000 signatures.
Lipinski was defeated in the 2020 Democratic primaries by Marie Newman. Newman, a LaGrange resident, also challenged Lipinski in 2018 but narrowly lost by a few thousand votes. She would later be defeated in a primary challenge against another incumbent as a result of redistricting.
As a member of Congress, Lipinski garnered a reputation for his socially conservative views on issues like abortion access. He was a member of the Blue Dog Coalition and often at odds with his colleagues in the Democratic Party, making him a highly appealing target for challengers. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee even declined to endorse Lipinski in his 2020 race before reversing its decision.
Yet even with the success of the draft effort, Lipinski has no plans to run for office. Writing in an editorial for the Chicago Tribune, he instead is setting his site on developing an independent effort to better support candidates operating outside of the duopoly.
“I am humbled by, and very thankful for, the tremendous support”, Lipinski wrote, “However, after careful consideration I have decided to forgo a run this year. Instead, I will focus my attention on helping build the emerging ‘Independents Movement.’”
In his article, Lipinski praised Andrew Yang and the Forward Party, as well as individuals like Senator Mitt Romney, who denounced both the right and left in a recent Atlantic article. He also spoke highly of ranked-choice voting and the potential for its adoption in local Evanstown and Berwyn.
Perhaps most interesting is that Lipinski also hinted at the creation of a new third-party movement, adding that his organization may be looking to “support candidates running for Congress in 2024 and perhaps start a new party.” As of December 2021, Illinois only recognizes two major political parties: the Democratic and Republican parties.
@ SocraticGadfly… Going to disagree… when people say they want a party in the center what they want is a free-market capitalist socially moderate party. In other words a free-market capitalist version of the Democrats; not the Democrats.
Congressman Lipinski, and his followers, should just join the American Solidarity Party. His political views fit perfectly with them.
In other words, another group of “independents” who don’t realize the Dem Party is already the centrist party.
Sadly, when most of Merika says it wants a third party, this is what it means.