Erika Harold is an attorney from Urbana who won the Miss America pageant in 2003.
Harold announced this morning that she will seek the Republican nomination to run against the four-term incumbent, Democrat Lisa Madigan. In a news release, Harold says she is running to “take on the Madigan way in Springfield.”
Harold has entered politics before. In 2012, she was one of four finalists for the nomination to represent the 13th district in Congress before Republican county chairmen chose Rodney Davis. In 2014, she unsuccessfully challenged Davis in the Republican primary.
According to her biography, Harold is a practicing attorney at Meyer Capel, one of Champaign County’s largest law firms. She received her JD from Harvard Law School. After graduating from the University of Illinois, Erika was accepted to Harvard Law School. Her bio also states that "lacking the necessary funds, Harold entered the Miss America competition in an attempt to earn the money for law school."
