If you ask former Miss America and current Congressional candidate Erika Harold what she thinks of the so-called “war on women,” she’ll tell you it’s all baloney.
Harold, who is running for Congress in Illinois 13th district, believes that women are just as capable of achieving great things – both within the workforce and the Republican party – as their male counterparts.
“If I thought that the Republican Party wasn’t a welcoming place for women, I wouldn’t run,” Harold told The Washington Examiner Monday. “Making sure that women have the ability to pursue their aspirations both professionally and within their families is something that’s very important to me.”
She believes that women are equally able to stand for conservative principles such as economic freedom and limited government without contradicting their own rights. According to her campaign website, Harold describes herself as a conservative who is pro-life and pro-Second Amendment.
Harold also that she opposes the contraception mandate because she believes it forces religious groups to violate their principles. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Harold worked as an attorney at the law firm Sidley & Austin defending religious organizations.
“Any time an organization’s right to define itself is infringed upon, each one of us is a little less free,” she told the Examiner.
Harold competed in the Miss America Pageant in 2003 in the hopes of winning a scholarship to law school. She was crowned Miss Illinois in 2002 and crowned Miss America in 2003. She also worked on President George W. Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign and served as a delegate to the 2004 Republican National Convention from Illinois.
She is running in the Republican primary against freshman Rep. Rodney Davis, whom the National Republican Campaign Committee has already said it would back in the election. Harold is hoping, however, that her status as a former Miss America will help her with fundraising on the national level.
