Pfingsten: Tanner Miller is running for Congress for unique reasons

Politics is often devoured by candidates driven by ego, power or passion about a certain ideology. It can be why people run for office. It can be why they continue to seek to remain in office cycle after cycle.

Cassandra Tanner Miller is someone seeking elective office for entirely different reasons. Tanner Miller, 34, of Elgin, announced her campaign for the Republican nomination for the 11th congressional district last week, hoping to challenge incumbent U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville, in November.

Tanner Miller survived a murder-suicide perpetrated by her estranged husband in 2019 when he shot and killed their 18-month-old son, Colton, before turning the gun on himself. He had been abusing drugs and had become emotionally unstable after serving in the National Guard and should have had his Firearm Owners Identification, or FOID, revoked.

Believing her estranged husband had been given preferential treatment by law enforcement and allowed to take advantages of loopholes in state law, Tanner Miller set out to change the law. Last year, Gov. JB Pritzker signed “Colton’s Law” into state statute.

That leads to the question of why such tragedy would lead someone to seek office, especially a seat in Congress. Many people who endure tragedy have a policy they attempt to change, such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving or the families of Sandy Hook and Stoneman Douglas victims arguing for gun reform.

“I don’t have a hook,” she told me. “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.”

Her three-minute announcement video tugs at your heartstrings but doesn’t involve much policy or an idea of what she believes in. It doesn’t even identify her political party.

She says divisiveness in 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.”

Obviously, tightening domestic violence laws is a top issue for her, but she didn’t weigh in on many other issues of the day. It’s obvious she’s not planning to run a race on depth of policy knowledge, but, in a sense, the way she relates to everyday people.

It isn’t the case for many Republican candidates these days, especially those desperate to get the word out, but in our conversation last week she never once uttered the name “Trump.”

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 2 1/2 weeks before the June 28 primary.

I’m looking forward to how she connects with people, if she can raise money, and if she can put together a message that resonates in both the primary and general election.

One thing is for sure: running for Congress won’t be the hardest thing she’s ever done.

• Patrick Pfingsten is a former award-winning journalist and longtime Republican strategist who writes The Illinoize statewide political newsletter. You can read more at www.theillinoize.com or contact him at patrick@theillinoize.com.