Former Miss America running for Illinois attorney general

URBANA — A lawyer who is a former Miss America says she’s running for Illinois attorney general.

Erika Harold of Urbana on Tuesday announced plans for a Republican bid to challenge four-term Democratic Attorney General Lisa Madigan in 2018.

Harold works as an attorney with the Meyer Capel law firm. The 37-year-old says in a statement that career politicians have “made it a nightmare for too many families in our state” and that Illinois needs a government that “works for them, not the powerful.”

Harold serves on the Illinois Supreme Court Committee on Equality and is a commissioner on the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism. She was the 2003 Miss America and in 2014 lost a GOP primary challenge for a U.S. House seat in south-central Illinois.