Erica Harriss
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Erica Harriss (Republican Party) is a member of the Illinois State Senate, representing District 56. She assumed office on January 11, 2023. Her current term ends on January 13, 2027.
Harriss (Republican Party) ran for election to the Illinois State Senate to represent District 56. She won in the general election on November 8, 2022.
Harriss completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Erica Harriss was born in Illinois. Harriss earned a bachelor's degree from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville in 1999. Her career experience includes working as a small business owner and communications director for the National Children's Cancer Society from 1999 to 2004.[1]
Sponsored legislation
The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.
Elections
2022
See also: Illinois State Senate elections, 2022
General election
General election for Illinois State Senate District 56
Erica Harriss defeated incumbent Kris Tharp in the general election for Illinois State Senate District 56 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Erica Harriss (R)  | 51.1 | 37,459 |
 | Kris Tharp (D) | 48.9 | 35,843 | |
| Total votes: 73,302 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Illinois State Senate District 56
Erica Harriss advanced from the Republican primary for Illinois State Senate District 56 on June 28, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Erica Harriss | 100.0 | 12,743 |
| Total votes: 12,743 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Erica Harriss completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Harriss' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Erica Harriss is a lifelong Metro East native. Born in Highland, Erica graduated from Edwardsville High School and earned her degree in Speech Communication/Public Relations from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 1999. She is an entrepreneur and small business owner, founding her company in 2014. She has worked professionally in marketing and human resources for Ozzie Smith, and staffed newsrooms at KSDK-TV in St. Louis. From 1999 until 2004 Erica served as the Director of Communications for the National Children’s Cancer Society (NCCS).
Elected to the Madison County Board in 2016, Harriss has has served as the Chairperson of the Personnel Committee and is a member of the Finance, Government Operations, and Grants committees.
In 2020, Erica was honored to receive the MLK Jr. Humanitarian Award from New Shining Light Outreach Ministry. She has been an active member and youth group leader at Metro Community Church for nearly 25 years, has volunteered with various local charity organizations, and is a regular supporter of Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) and Compassion International.
- To reduce the overbearing tax burden on Illinois families by supporting legislation to cap and freeze property taxes, by opposing a progressive income tax, and voting against taxing retirement income.
- To confront Springfield corruption by supporting comprehensive ethics reform, greater power for the Legislative Inspector General, and term limits for leaders in both chambers.
- To support law enforcement and repeal the SAFE-T Act, keeping them and our communities safe.
I am running for the Illinois Senate to make Illinois a better place to work, live and raise a family. I believe the way to improve our state is to end political polarization and bring together leaders of both parties to work for solutions to benefit the people - rather than the politicians in this state.
With one of the highest tax burdens, lowest credit ratings and corruption that regularly makes the national news, Illinois’ problems can seem overwhelming. The status quo has gone on for so long under single party rule that they have made us believe that there are no solutions.
I am tired of the excuses. As Illinoisans there is nothing we cannot overcome if we work together. I know it is possible to lower taxes and create more economic opportunity because I have done it on the Madison County Board helping to lead a successful initiative to reduce property taxes in Madison County.
As a small business owner, I understand and have dealt personally with many of the government hurdles that hold entrepreneurs in Illinois back.
I am running to be a voice for our small business owners and the Illinois workforce because I know we can improve our business climate by cutting wasteful spending, balancing budgets, reducing taxes and regulations, creating new jobs, and reducing regulations.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Scorecards
A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.
Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.
Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of Illinois scorecards, email suggestions to [email protected].
2023
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2023, click [show]. |
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In 2023, the Illinois State Legislature was in session from January 11 to May 27.
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See also
2022 Elections
External links
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Candidate Illinois State Senate District 56 |
Officeholder Illinois State Senate District 56 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on September 19, 2022
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Kris Tharp (D) |
Illinois State Senate District 56 2023-Present |
Succeeded by - |
