After weeks of speculation, Congresswoman Mary Miller of Oakland announced today that she intends to seek re-election to Congress in the new Illinois 15th Congressional District. The 15th District stretches across over 30 counties in Central Illinois. Miller will now fight for the Republican nomination against 5-term incumbent Rodney Davis of Taylorville.
Miller made the announcement today while also announcing she had been endorsed by former President Donald Trump. Miller says she was inspired by Trump to seek her first term in Congress in 2020: “President Donald Trump inspired me to run in 2020 because our country needs principled conservatives in Congress who always put America first. Today, President Trump is endorsing me because I am a conservative fighter who is not afraid to take on the DC swamp. I am not a career politician, and running for office is not my life’s ambition. My life is spent in the real world, on my small family farm with my husband Chris, where we were blessed to raise our seven children and welcome our seventeen grandchildren. I bring those values to Washington, not the other way around.”
Miller’s home in Oakland is just outside the newly drawn 15th District. Her home currently lies in the newly drawn 12th District with fellow Republican Congressman Mike Bost. Members of Congress do not have to live in the district they represent.
Miller faces a somewhat uphill climb to gain support in the newly drawn 15th District. Davis has already been endorsed by 32 of the 35 GOP county chairmen in the new 15th District, as well as by two of his neighboring Illinois Republican congressional colleagues, including Bost and current 18th District Congressman Darin LaHood.
The Davis Campaign was also quick to issue a blistering response to Miller’s announcement today calling her a “carpetbagger,” citing her raising in Oak Park and Naperville area: “Mary Miller is only an outsider in the sense that she doesn’t live in the 15th District. Miller is so desperate to stay in Congress she’s running in a district she doesn’t live in, just like her husband. The Millers are taking a page out of the Springfield political insider playbook. Politics is their family business.”
The Davis Campaign also struck at Miller’s support of Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey of Xenia: “Even worse, Miller supports the Never Trump ticket for Illinois Governor and refused to vote against Nancy Pelosi’s sham 1/6 Select Committee. All Mary Miller has to show for her time in Congress is quoting Hitler and voting with Democrats like AOC and the far left squad to defund our military and block a pay raise for our troops. That’s shameful. It’s clear that Mary Miller is all talk, no action. Rodney Davis is a conservative who gets things done. He’s already been hard at work highlighting his conservative accomplishments and work with President Trump during his time in office. Rodney is an effective conservative member of Congress and Mary is not.”
Miller’s time in Congress has been mired in controversy. On January 5, 2021, just two days into her term, Miller issued a prepared speech to the conservative group Moms for America in which she quoted Adolf Hitler. A number of groups and politicians strongly condemned the comment, harshly criticized Miller, and exhorted the Republican party to do likewise. Miller would apologize on Twitter three days later but accused critics of twisting her words.
She has called for current President Joe Biden’s impeachment over border security concerns, sought the firing of Dr. Anthony Fauci over his handling of the pandemic, is a member of the Freedom Caucus that has had controversies of its own.
She objected to the vote counting of Arizona and Pennsylvania on January 6th, 2021 once Congress was able to certify the election. She has regularly called the 2020 Election “tainted” and supported conspiracy theories about voter fraud surrounding the election. In her video announcing her re-election campaign today she said she’s pushing for secure elections: “I’m fighting for ‘real’ election security so that voters decide elections, not the ballot counters.” Davis recently commented favorably on the amount of security at the ballot box across Central Illinois and is pushing for a possible Voter ID law as part of his next term.
On March 19, 2021, she was one of 14 House Republicans to vote against a measure condemning the Myanmar coup d’état that overwhelmingly passed, for reasons reported to be unclear. In June 2021, Miller was one of 21 House Republicans to vote against a resolution to give the Congressional Gold Medal to police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol during the riot on January 6th.
The GOP primary pitting Davis against Miller is June 28th.