Tanner Miller Hopes to Use Personal Tragedy for Change
Cassandra Tanner Miller of Elgin announced a campaign for Illinois’ 11th congressional district Monday. Tanner survived a domestic violence incident in which her estranged husband murdered their son and took his own life.
Cassandra Tanner Miller isn’t your typical Republican and she surely isn’t your typical candidate for Congress.
The 34-year-old mother and advocate for domestic violence survivors lost her son when her estranged husband killed the 18-month old baby in a murder-suicide in 2019.
Tanner Miller helped pass legislation aimed at combatting domestic violence. Monday, she announced she’s running for Congress in the redrawn 11th district.
In an emotional announcement video, Miller Tanner recalls the tragedy and how it compels her to make a difference.
In an interview with The Illinoize Monday night, Tanner Miller says she’s not using the tragedy that struck her life as a specific policy motivation.
“I don’t have a hook,” Tanner Miller said. “It’s a message. It’s the fact that I am your normal [person] that has daily struggles. I wanted to introduce myself in a very direct way. I didn’t want to take the approach that’s been taken by every other person that’s walked this path before me. That approach isn’t working and it isn’t going to get us the changes we need to accomplish.”
She wants to make issues involving domestic violence part of the national conversation, including the root causes.
“I saw the gaps and the failures of the system that failed not only my family, but so many families who have suffered prior to mine,” she said. “There are going to be so many families that suffer the same fate.
Tanner Miller says the root cause of domestic violence runs deep, and many of those issues need to be addressed in Congress.
“Education, poverty, our criminal justice system, racism, they’re all major issues,” Tanner Miller said. “Every societal kitchen table issue that we talk about in our homes all come back to safety within our homes.”
Tanner Miller describes herself as a conservative, but says she wants to bring the idea of working across the aisle with Democrats to Washington. She says the partisan nature of Congress frustrates people and stops important work from getting done.
“I’m a voice for a bipartisan, common sense way of doing things,” she said. “We need both parties to work together to actually make change. I am a conservative, I am a Republican, but I also understand that we have to work together in a bipartisan way to accomplish these things and meet the needs of the people we represent.”
Tanner Miller says she’s not planning to run a typical race for congress.
“I’m not the average politician who is just looking for the next step of her career,” she said. “I’m someone with lived experience who actually has a purpose and I can’t fail, because I have people counting on me to bring change to these issues.”
Tanner Miller was remarried in August and is expecting a baby boy June 9, just two and a half weeks before the June 28 primary.
Former Trump administration official Catalina Lauf is the most notable Republican in the race. This west suburban and exurban district is represented by Congressman Bill Foster (D-Naperville). President Biden won it by 15 points, but Governor Pritzker won it by just 2.5 percentage points in 2018.