The seed that has become Country First was planted January 6th, 2021 -- and led me to declare the "Republican Party has lost its way." One year later, sadly, the party's leaders have led it even farther from the truth.

I'll admit that I thought the insurrection would be a wake-up call to ALL Americans to turn their backs to Trump and his enablers; to the lies and conspiracies. But that huge wave of Republicans didn't materialize. Instead, an unexpected surprise: A massive group of reasonable people of goodwill, from all walks of life and political viewpoints, came together to say "WE will save our country."

Among us are Republicans, Democrats, and Independents; conservatives, moderates, and progressives. There's plenty we disagree about, but we're united where it truly counts.

We've put our Country before Party. We are Country First.

And as we move into 2022, I've never been more optimistic about what this movement can do to defend democracy, vanquish autocracy, and inspire millions more to join us in this quest to save the republic we all love so dearly.

We will do this by:

• Calling out those who seek to divide us from the truth and each other for their own selfish gain;
• Waking up reasonable people of goodwill to their power as the real majority;
• Giving them hope that change can happen, proven solutions and real opportunity are possible, and that things don’t have to continue getting worse for our kids and grandkids;
• Inspiring them to join the fight, in a race against time, before the slide toward extremism is irreversible; and finally
• Launching a first-of-its-kind operation to take-on the most toxic partisans in Congress.

This is the fight of our lives -- and I hope to have you, and every member of this movement, beside me.

Congressman Adam Kinzinger