Prairie State Wire

GOP attorney general hopeful Erika Harold was considered the winner in an Oct. 29 debate against Democrat Kwame Raoul.

“An attorney general of Illinois should be independent, unafraid of special interests, political parties or politicians,” Harold said in a commercial on her Facebook Page. “I’m accountable to you, not the president, not the governor, and unlike Kwame Raoul, I’ll never take orders from Mike Madigan.”

According to a Chicago Tribune article about the debate, Raoul focused on challenging the Trump Administration in court while Harold focused on dealing with public corruption.

“While Kwame deflected from his own record and attacked Erika with Madigan-funded lies, Erika focused on the issues and laid out her detailed plan to combat corruption in Springfield,” a press release from Team Harold wrote.

Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan’s daughter, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, stepped down from running this term, opening up a pool of Democratic hopefuls, the Chicago Tribune noted. 

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner is backing Harold, and donated $3 million to her campaign.

In another commercial on her Facebook Page, Harold expressed her support for the #MeToo movement.

“I won’t rest until we shut down every human sex trafficking ring in Illinois, put every child predator behind bars, and make sure that every victim of sexual harassment and assault knows the attorney general has their back,” she said.  

Harold was a national leader in the fight against youth violence and bullying for over 100,000 students as Miss America 2003, her Facebook Page bio stated.

“This is probably the most important AG election in Illinois history!” Facebook user Gene Malfeo said in a comment. “We need your ethical standards in office because the state is on the verge of no return with the Madigan machine.”