Republican who called Roe ruling “victory for white life” wins primary

Representative Mary Miller won the Republican primary for Illinois’ 15th Congressional District on Tuesday in a rare incumbent-versus-incumbent race against Representative Rodney Davis.

Miller, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, beat out her GOP opponent with 57.6 percent of the vote at the time that the race was called by the Associated Press.

Trump was in central Illinois over the weekend to stump for Miller, who became widely criticized after she described the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade as a “victory for white life” during the rally.

“President Trump, on behalf of all the MAGA patriots in America, I want to thank you for the historic victory for white life in the Supreme Court yesterday,” she told the crowd on Saturday.

During his term in office, Trump appointed Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, who moved the Supreme Court to a 6-3 conservative majority and who all joined the majority opinion issued on Friday.

Miller’s campaign has stated that the freshman congresswoman had meant to say “right to life” in her speech, but it is not the first controversy she’s been embroiled in. During her first month in office, Miller made comments that seemingly praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler for being “right.”

Speaking at a rally on Capitol Hill in January 2021, Miller said, “Each generation has the responsibility to teach and train the next generation. You know, if we win a few elections, we’re still going to be losing, unless we win the hearts and minds of our children. This is the battle.”

“Hitler was right on one thing: He said, ‘Whoever has the youth, has the future.’ Our children are being propagandized,” the congresswoman added.

The remarks drew immense criticism, including from the United States Holocaust Museum, which made a statement saying the Washington museum “unequivocally condemns any leader trying to advance a position by claiming Adolf Hilter was ‘right.'”

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who is Jewish, called Miller’s comments “reprehensible” and “disgusting,” while Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth called for her resignation.

Although she initially pushed back on the outcry, Miller backtracked and apologized, saying she is “a strong advocate and ally of the Jewish community.”

Miller, who was among the 147 House Republicans who objected to the electoral college results of the 2020 presidential election, was running against Davis as a result of redistricting. Although Davis had once been a member of the Trump camp, serving as the co-chair of the former president’s reelection campaign in Illinois, he did not earn Trump’s endorsement after he proposed a bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The measure failed to win support in the House.

Throughout her campaign, Miller slammed Davis as a “RINO” (Republican In Name Only) and accused the congressman of “stabb[ing] President Trump in the back by voting for the sham January 6th Commission.”