Candidate for Attorney General Once Lost ‘Miss Illinois’ Contest Over Her ‘Shocking’ View of Gay Adoption

‘I Remember It Because It Was So shocking…It Stopped the Room’ Pageant Official Says

A Republican candidate running to be Illinois’ Attorney General once delivered a response to judges of the Miss Illinois contest it cost her the title. According to NBC Chicago Erika Harold in 2000 was a contestant but didn’t even make it into the top ten after her answer to a question one person present said was “shocking.”

The question was asked during a “behind-the-scenes” interview.

Harold, who is running to become the Republican nominee for attorney general, was 19 or 20-years old when she was asked about gay people adopting. 

If she were responsible for placing “a child in foster care and had to choose between a.) A loving gay couple or b.) A heterosexual couple who were known child abusers, which would she chose?” 

Three sources who were present during the interview told NBC Chicago she answered she would place a foster child with known child abusers rather than a loving same-sex couple. 

“I remember it because it was so shocking. She took some time to answer it. And that drew people in. It stopped the room,” one pageant official told NBC News. “It said a lot about her, she spoke about reading the Bible daily and said her beliefs could not subject a child to the gay lifestyle.”

Anther person present when Harold answered also told NBC, “I remember it like it was yesterday. It was shocking.”

Harold’s campaign says she does not remember the question, but insists she supports same-sex parents adopting children.

“I find it literally impossible she does not remember, because it cost her the pageant, she did not even make the top 10 that year. There’s no way she does not remember,” another pageant official told NBC News.

Harold’s campaign “after repeated requests” issued a statement to NBC Chicago:

“Voters should first know that NBC Chicago has chosen to air an unverified story from anonymous sources twelve days before an election about an alleged event that supposedly occurred nearly two decades ago when Erika was 20 years old. Erika does not recall the alleged exchange, but Erika certainly support[s] same-sex adoption and foster care placement.”

Illinois governor Bruce Rauner, a Republican, has just donated $350,000 to Harold’s campaign. His campaign praised Harold as “a star attorney and candidate who is a bright part of the future of the Republican Party of Illinois.”

There are no policy positions on Harold’s website. Nowhere on her website is she identified as a Republican, except for the final frames in a campaign video that says the ad was paid for in part by the Illinois Republican Party.