Erika Harold won the Republican nomination for Illinois attorney general, while state Sen. Kwame Raoul defeated a crowded race to win the Democratic nod. They'll face off in the general election in November.
Incumbent Attorney General Lisa Madigan set off a scramble last year when she made a surprise announcement she would not seek a fifth term. The race drew ten candidates in all.
With funding from the Republican Party and Governor Bruce Rauner, Harold beat former Burr Ridge mayor Gary Grasso, winning 60 percent of the vote.
“It’s such a humbling feeling to know that voters throughout the state found that my message resonated with them,” Harold, a former Miss America and Harvard-educated lawyer, told CLTV in Chicago Tuesday night.
All eight of the Democratic candidates promised to challenge President Donald Trump and his policies on immigration, abortion and LGBTQ rights.
In his victory speech, Raoul talked about his own immigrant heritage.
“My father always taught to me a proud Haitian American and I don’t care what Donald Trump said, I didn’t come from no type of hole.”
Raoul edged out former Governor Pat Quinn by just a few percentage points.
