Harold is a Harvard-educated attorney and was a delegate to the 2004 RNC. Ex-Miss America's campaign plan

For the former Miss America who just jumped into the race for Illinois’s 13th Congressional District, the Republican primary might be, well, a bit like a beauty pageant.

She calls her opponent, an incumbent freshman, a “good person,” insists there’s no need for attacks, and says let the judges, no, make that the voters, decide.


“I view this primary process as being very healthful to the party because we will be able throughout the campaign to debate the issues that are important to the party,” newly declared candidate Erika Harold told POLITICO, referring to her challenge of Rep. Rodney Davis in the GOP primary.

“I think he’s a good person, and that’s why I think in this case this can be a positive primary process where we can both make a positive case to the voters about why we can be a good representative,” she added.

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Harold, 33 and single, is a Harvard-educated attorney, a born-and-bred local and was a delegate to the 2004 Republican National Convention. She won the Miss America crown in 2003.

Harold, who announced her bid to take on Davis on Tuesday, says she has no problem with the attention on her pageant past. In fact, she says, it’s one of the things that make her qualified to serve in Congress.

And while Harold has problems with Obamacare, she has plenty of nice things to say about its creator.

In her health law practice, Harold said, she’s seen first hand businesses that are unable to deal with some the new health care measures.

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“I have a client that is a hospital, and they were trying to figure out how the implementation of Obamacare would affect their ability to hire and what kind of services they can provide and what kind of penalties they would be subject to, and it was difficult to find the answer for them,” Harold said. “There’s a great deal of uncertainty and oftentimes it makes hospitals and employers decide we just don’t want to hire because just don’t want to deal with that.”

While health care reform is needed, she said, “the Obamacare act exacerbated some of the worst parts of our health care system.”

But as for Obama himself, Harold says she’s got some things in common with the president in addition to their Illinois residency.

“One of the things that people who make the comparison often say is that he and I both have an optimistic view of the country and people’s capacity to effect change, and I think that we do share that in common,” Harold said. “I know that he has a background in organizing communities to affect issues, and I think that’s a very empowering way to organize people. And I think that sense of optimism is something people hopefully find appealing. And I also admire the fact that he seems like he’s a great father and I’ve found it heartwarming to see pictures of his daughters growing up.They’re great representatives of their generation.”

Born and raised in Urbana, Ill., Harold graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Illinois and was accepted to Harvard Law School, but she said there was one problem: funds.

“After I was accepted to law school and I saw how much I would have to pay, I realized I didn’t have any of it, and so I decided to enter Miss America,” Harold told POLITICO.

And she won in 2003, singing opera for her talent. As Miss America, Harold focused her platform on combating bullying and violence in schools, as well as advocating abstinence from sex, drugs and alcohol.

Winning the competition gave her the scholarship money to “graduate debt-free” from Harvard Law School and work in communities across the country, an experience she holds as invaluable.

“Being Miss America was an incredible opportunity to serve on a national level, where I had an opportunity to promote a national platform that dealt with preventing violence and bullying in schools, and I had the opportunity to go from community to community to motivate key stakeholders,” Harold said.

Harold said in interviews after her win that the topic of bullying was particularly important to her, as a victim of bullying in her past, sometimes racially motivated. Harold’s mother is African-American and Cherokee Indian and her father is Greek, German and English, she told PBS.

She also said the Miss America program was empowering for her as a young woman. “The unique thing about the Miss America competition is it gives young women leadership opportunities that are not often available,” Harold said.

After deferring from Harvard for her year wearing the crown, Harold graduated law school in 2007. She returned to Illinois to practice law, specializing in commercial litigation, health care and also representing religious organizations in First Amendment cases.

Harold said she’s never been recognized in the courtroom, but that doesn’t mean her Miss America past hasn’t followed her throughout her career.

“Once in a deposition I saw different associates walking by and peering into the conference room, and finally the opposing council said, ‘They found out you were here, they found out you were Miss America, and they wanted to come look,’” Harold said. “Being Miss America is something I will be associated with for the rest of my life and it’s an association I’m really proud of.”

Now she’s set her sights on public office, a goal she had even when she was Miss Illinois 2002, according to her contestant profile.

To do so, she left her law firm job in Chicago this spring and moved back home to Urbana, where she intends to keep practicing law throughout her campaign.

She announced her campaign Tuesday in an emotional moment on the steps of her former high school, she said, surrounded by family and friends proudly wearing T-shirts to support her.

“I’m really passionate about the district. I was born and raised there, and so many people made such a positive influence in my life,” Harold said.

Harold said she was partly motivated to enter the contest knowing that Davis was elected without going through a primary; Davis was named by party officials when former Rep. Tim Johnson bowed out of the race after winning the primary.

And if her campaign is successful, her priority in Congress will be economic growth.

“I think that the issue of the economy manifests itself in many different ways in many different people’s lives,” she said. “So I’ll be focusing on the economy, because I think one of the founding principles of the Republican Party is that when you can empower people to make choices for themselves, that is the best scenario.”