US Rep. Mary Miller uses Trump endorsement to win another term over Democrat Paul Lange

Mary Miller claimed victory Tuesday in Illinois’ 15th Congressional District.

The Associated Press called the race for Miller. With 94% of precincts reporting, she led with 71.4% of the vote.

Trump-endorsed freshman Republican Miller battled Democrat Paul Lange of Mendon, a little-known candidate with a meager war chest.

The newly redrawn 15th Congressional District covers 35 counties in central and Southern Illinois. In a rare incumbent versus incumbent race, Miller of Oakland defeated five-term Rep. Rodney Davis of Taylorville in the June primary.

Born in Oak Park and raised in Naperville, Miller has embraced some of the most far-right ideologies of her party, calling for the impeachment of President Biden and the firing of Dr. Anthony Fauci over his pandemic response. A member of the Freedom Caucus, Miller has also been a political ally of U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, an avid promoter of unfounded conspiracy theories.

In January 2021, Miller apologized over a speech in which she said Adolf “Hitler was right on one thing. He said, ‘whoever has the youth has the future,’” in the context of indoctrinating young people with GOP ideals.

While she later said she regretted using the reference, she also accused others of “intentionally trying to twist my words.”

In June, just days before the GOP primary she later won, Miller was also again the focus of criticism when she took to a county fair stage to thank former President Donald Trump for appointing conservative justices who led the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, which she said was a “historic victory for white life.” Later, a Miller campaign aide said she meant to say “right to life,” but that Miller misspoke.

Following the May 24 killings of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, Miller, a member of the Second Amendment Caucus opposed to gun regulation, had an explanation for what she and the group think is the cause of mass shootings.

“We cannot let those who are trying to destroy our society’s central pillars of faith, family and freedom succeed,” she said of renewed efforts for gun regulations.

She also voted against a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine amid the nation’s war with Russia, saying, “We’re not taking care of the immediate needs, the things that Americans care about, like funding our EMT or our police or our schools.”