On Jan. 6, 2021, shortly after a violent mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol, newly sworn-in Rep. Mary Miller voted against certifying election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania for Joe Biden. Her fellow Illinois Republican, five-term Rep. Rodney Davis, voted the opposite way.
The two didn’t anticipate it then, but after their state’s loss of a House seat in the congressional reapportionment process, they find themselves running against each other in a contentious, multimillion-dollar primary that will end one of their Capitol Hill careers.
Illinois’ new congressional boundaries not only put Miller and Davis together in the heavily GOP 15th District — which covers the state’s largely rural eastern and southern enclaves — it also resulted in a pair of Democrats, freshman Rep. Marie Newman and two-term Rep. Sean Casten, running against each other for the Chicago-area 6th District nomination. They, too, have diverged on some high-profile, controversial matters, including legislation to fund an Israeli missile defense system, according to a CQ Roll Call analysis of their votes this 117th Congress.
