The former President Donald Trump has pledged to travel to Illinois and campaign for Rep. Mary Miller in her tough primary against Republican Rep. Rodney Davis, Miller said.
A visit by Trump before the June 28 primary would give Miller a big boost in the newly drawn horseshoe-shaped 15th Congressional District, which includes some rural areas and suburbs of St. Louis.
In a short interview outside the Capitol this week, Miller said she had recently spoken with Trump and that he had promised to stump for her.
Miller asked when he planned to visit, and he replied: June. The Trump team hasn't confirmed a trip to Illinois. Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich said Miller was holding a fundraiser at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Wednesday night and that Trump plans to stop by.
Davis and Miller, both Trump allies, are in a rare member-on-member primary race brought on by the decennial redistricting process. Miller, who was elected to Congress in 2020, is a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus. Davis, who co-chaired Trump's 2020 re-election campaign in Illinois, is a former leader of the more centrist business-friendly Republican Main Street Caucus.
Davis is an ally of House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy of California, who has named him the top Republican on the House Administration Committee. The panel oversees the security of the U.S. Capitol, and Davis was one of 35 Republicans who joined Democrats in voting to create a bipartisan 9-11-style independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 riot.
The campaign against Miller has attacked Miller for not living in the new district, calling her a carpetbagger and Chicagoland native who appears desperate to stay in Congress. His campaign has gone after Miller for a speech she gave in Washington last year when she said Hitler was right on one thing. He said who has the youth has the future. She apologized for the remarks.
Informed about Trump's potential visit to Illinois, Davis said that I m going to continue to talk about my conservative credentials, my record of working with President Trump when he was president to lower taxes, attack student debt and also fund our military. Davis said, asked whether it was a mistake for Trump to endorse Miller instead of him. Davis has won the backing of Illinois Republicans with the help of Reps. Darin LaHood and Mike Bost and former Rep. John Shimkus. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a conservative firebrand, had urged Trump to throw his support behind Miller, which he ultimately did Jan. 1.