Miller, with Trump endorsement, will go head-to-head with Davis in 15th district primary

Rep. Mary Miller, R-Oakland, armed with an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, announced Saturday that she will challenge Rep. Rodney Davis of Taylorville in Illinois' newly drawn 15th U.S. Congressional District.

Miller said Trump "inspired" her to run in 2020.

Miller's announcement drew a swift and prickly response from Davis' camp, which labeled her "a carpetbagger."

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Miller’s Coles County residence was drawn into a district in southern Illinois where incumbent Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, lives. Bost, a former Illinois legislator, has represented the 12th District in Congress 2014.

Illinois Democrats, who controlled the recent redistricting process, placed Davis and his hometown of Taylorville in the mostly rural 15th District, which runs the entirety of the state from Quincy to the Indiana border and north to the Iowa border, comprising 35 counties.

Davis, 51, has represented the 13th District since 2012.

Though Miller lives near the 15th district border, U.S. House candidates don't have to live in the House districts they represent.

Davis, who flirted with a run for governor, told The State Journal-Register in early December he was running for a sixth term to “stop the mess that’s been created” by the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden.

A release from his campaign pointed out that Davis served as an Illinois co-chair of Trump’s re-election campaign. He opposed both of Trump's impeachments and voted with Trump nearly 90% of the time when he was in office.

In a news release announcing Trump's endorsement, Miller called herself "a conservative fighter" who wasn't "a career politician."

Miller, 62, pointed out she was the only member of Congress from Illinois fighting to impeach Joe Biden and "the lawless Biden Cabinet for leaving our (southern) border exposed to an invasion of illegal immigration. I am the only member from Illinois who has fought every effort by Joe Biden to use COVID vaccine mandates to fire Americans from their jobs and I opposed funding COVID vaccine databases that share information with the federal government.”

Davis spokesman Aaron DeGroot said Miller was so desperate to stay in Congress "she’s running in a district she doesn’t live in, just like her husband (Chris). The Millers are taking a page out of the Springfield political insider playbook. Politics is their family business."

Chris Miller, R-Oakland, is running in the Illinois 101st district. He currently represents the 110th district.

The GOP primary pitting Davis against Mary Miller is June 28.

This story will be updated.

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Rep. Mary Miller to challenge Rep. Rodney Davis in 15th district