Donna Miller, a Cook County commissioner and a former health care consultant, won a Democratic House primary in the Chicago area on Tuesday, blocking former Representative Jesse L. Jackson Jr.’s path back to Congress.
Ms. Miller, 60, said she would work to lower health care costs and expand Obamacare coverage in Congress. She will be a heavy favorite to win the general election in a deeply Democratic district that stretches from the South Side of Chicago into rural regions south of the city.
Her victory came over a crowded field including Mr. Jackson, who was seeking an electoral comeback more than a decade after his political career was cut short by a corruption scandal that sent him to federal prison. He argued that his 17 years in Congress best positioned him to champion the region in Washington.
Ms. Miller said that “everyone has the right to run,” but she described herself as the candidate of the people. “I will work hard with integrity and excellence to represent them,” Ms. Miller said in a recent interview.
Ms. Miller received millions of dollars in support from a super PAC tied to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the hard-line pro-Israel lobbying organization. Her race was one of several Democratic primaries in the Chicago region where AIPAC was seen to have played a role.
Ms. Miller did not support unconditional U.S. military aid for Israel and cast herself as a forceful critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that his government had strong “parallels” to the Trump administration.
She emphasized that she had not been formally endorsed by AIPAC. “I do believe in a two-state solution,” she said. “I do think Israel has a right to exist.”
She was endorsed by The Chicago Tribune’s editorial board and Representative Brad Schneider, Democrat of the northern Chicago suburbs. Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic minority leader, who would become speaker if the party were to win the House in the midterms, offered Ms. Miller encouragement the day before the primary, she said.
He did not publicly endorse a candidate.
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