Rep. Mary Miller wanted voter fraud investigated in 2020; now she’s getting donations from couple accused of committing it
Debra Meadows, founder of the Right Women PAC backing Miller, is under a voter fraud cloud along with husband Mark Meadows, Trump’s ex-chief of staff
WASHINGTON — Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., an ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump, signed a letter stating claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election should be investigated. Now her bid for a second term is benefiting from spending by a PAC whose leader is suspected of voter fraud.
That letter, to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was sent in December 2020, before Miller was sworn into her first term on Jan. 3, 2021. In a press release, issued before she took office, Miller, maintaining falsely Trump won the election, said, “Even a glancing review would uncover the greatest heist of the 21st century.”
With Miller’s interest in pursuing voter fraud, it is worth noting that a Sun-Times examination of money bolstering Miller’s bid for a second term shows she is benefiting from a $74,054.74 independent expenditure by the Right Women political action committee, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission.
The Right Women PAC is dedicated to, according to the group, electing “bold, unflinching conservative women.” The PAC is siding with Miller in her GOP primary battle against another conservative incumbent, Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill.
According to the FEC report, on March 11, the Right Women PAC committed to paying Ring Limited, a Dublin, Ohio, digital advertising firm, $74,054.74 for digital ads and data to benefit Miller’s reelection.
Debra Meadows, the founder of the Right Women PAC and one of its leaders, is under a voter fraud cloud, along with her husband, Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff.
Last May, Miller’s campaign got a direct $5,000 donation from Freedom First, a political action committee created by Mark Meadows when he was a North Carolina Republican congressman.
Debra and Mark Meadows are suspected of voting from a mobile home in North Carolina where they never lived.
The allegations first surfaced in a March 6 New Yorker Magazine story headlined, “Why did Mark Meadows register to vote at an address where he did not reside?”
In the wake of news reports about the Meadowses not living in their mobile home they registered to vote from, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation confirmed it is investigating Mark Meadows.
Last Wednesday, the Washington Post reported Debra Meadows “appears to have filed at least two false voter forms.”
That Right Women PAC spending is classified under federal law as an independent expenditure, which means the Miller campaign has no control over the spending.
Emails requesting comment sent to Miller’s campaign and to the Right Women PAC were not answered.
The primary in the 15th Congressional District in southern and central Illinois, pitting Miller, from Oakland, against Davis, from Taylorville, is a test of the power of former President Donald Trump in Illinois.
Trump endorsed Miller on Jan. 1.
GOP governor candidate Darren Bailey, from Xenia, in a GOP governor primary with at least four major rivals, is seeking Trump’s endorsement.
The primary winner in the heavily Republican 15th District will likely clinch the seat in November.
Miller is one of the 147 Republicans who voted on Jan. 6, 2021, to overturn the election results.
The Jan. 6 committee investigating the Capitol insurrection, where rioters tried to prevent Congress from finalizing Joe Biden’s election, subpoenaed Mark Meadows to learn more about his role in trying to overturn the election.
Meadows ignored the panel’s subpoena, and in December, the House found him in contempt of Congress, asking the Justice Department to determine if he should face criminal charges.
The Right Women PAC, with Debra Meadows as its executive director, endorsed Miller in her four-way 2020 Republican primary.
In 2022, Miller is featured on the Right Women PAC website as an endorsed candidate along with leading — and controversial — election deniers Rep. Lauren Bobert, R-Col., and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
Debra Meadows was listed as the Right Women executive director on its website until the leadership page was removed after the New Yorker story.
Miller is the highest-profile elected official in Illinois who is part of Trump’s election-denying MAGA wing of the GOP.
Trump’s Miller endorsement is part of his plan to install Trumployal MAGA Republicans in the House in advance of his anticipated 2024 White House comeback bid.
Miller is also testing whether she has Trump-fueled coattails, endorsing Jim Marter, of Oswego, in the six-way GOP primary in the 14th Congressional District — which sweeps in Chicago’s western and southern suburbs. In November, the GOP nominee in that contest will face Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., from Naperville.