Erika Harold
Erika Natalie Harold, born February 20, 1980, in Urbana, Illinois, is an American attorney, politician, and former Miss America. She was Miss Illinois in 2002 and Miss America in 2003. Her platform was preventing youth violence and bullying, inspired by personal experiences of harassment. She also promoted abstinence during part of her Miss America year.
Harold earned a BA in political science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and a JD from Harvard Law School in 2007. She worked as an attorney in Chicago at Sidley Austin and in Champaign at Meyer Capel.
In 2022, the Illinois Supreme Court appointed her as executive director of the Commission on Professionalism.
Politically, Harold is a Republican. She was Youth Director for Patrick O’Malley’s gubernatorial campaign and a delegate to the 2004 Republican National Convention. She ran for Illinois’s 13th congressional district in 2014 but lost the Republican primary to Rodney L. Davis. In 2018, she won the Republican nomination for Illinois attorney general but lost the general election to Kwame Raoul.
Her background includes Greek, German, and English ancestry from her father, and Native American and African-American ancestry from her mother.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 13:44 (CET).