Pro-Israel Democrat Candidate Wins IL-02 Primary: ‘Social Media Is Not Real Life’
While an extremely loud minority of Americans openly traffics in antisemitic rhetoric, most Americans continue to support Israel, and many back a hard line against Iran.
In a clear sign that “social media is not real life,” pro-Israel candidate Donna Miller won a decisive victory over anti-Israel candidate Robert Peters in the Democratic primary for Illinois’ Second Congressional District. With 92% of the votes counted, Miller led with 40.4%, while Peters trailed at 12%.
She also defeated Jesse Jackson Jr., who received 29% of the vote and was seeking to reclaim the seat he held from 1995 to 2012. He resigned from Congress one month after an investigation into his misuse of campaign funds was reported. Jackson later pleaded guilty and served time in prison.
Miller swept every county in the district, beating her nearest competitor by margins of 9 to 24 points.
IL-02 is a solidly blue district, meaning that Miller’s victory in the November general election is likely.
She will face Republican candidate Michael Scott Noack, who ran uncontested in the GOP primary.
NBC calls IL-02 for Donna Miller over Jesse Jackson Jr. and Robert Peters.
Miller, the pro-Israel candidate, winning 41% of the vote.
Robert Peters, the anti-Israel candidate, in FOURTH place with 11% of the vote.
Social media isn’t real life.
— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) March 18, 2026
As political analyst Josh Kraushaar noted on X, “social media isn’t real life.” In other words, the antisemitism that dominates online discussions does not reflect the views of the broader electorate.
Groypers hardest hit: pic.twitter.com/mFcTsSBwTw
— TheEducator (@DanExplainsIt) March 18, 2026
Miller’s victory likely breaks the hearts of Democratic politicians and the vast majority of the legacy media who don’t even try to hide their opposition to the U.S.-Israel war against Iran or their hopes that the Iranian regime prevails.
Though just one race in one state, its broader message is one that politicians and the media should not ignore. While an extremely loud minority of Americans openly traffics in antisemitic rhetoric, most Americans continue to support Israel, and many back a hard line against Iran. Recent polling underscores this reality, with overwhelming Republican support and even a measurable share of Democrats favoring military action — revealing a public far less aligned with online discourse than recent media coverage would suggest.
This reality was made plain on Tuesday, when the far-left, anti-American, and anti-Israel media outlet Al Jazeera published an article arguing that the U.S.-Israeli strategy against Iran is working and that Trump must stay the course. The author, Assistant Professor of International Politics and Security at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Muhanad Seloom, notes that, “Every aspect of Iran’s ability to project regional power is being successfully degraded.”
Two weeks into Operation Epic Fury, the dominant narrative has settled into a comfortable groove: The United States and Israel stumbled into a war without a plan. Iran is retaliating across the region. Oil prices are surging, and the world is facing another Middle Eastern quagmire. US senators have called it a blunder. Cable news has tallied the crises. Commentators have warned of a long war.
…
But this narrative is wrong. Not because the costs are imaginary, but because the critics are measuring the wrong things. They are cataloguing the price of the campaign while ignoring the strategic ledger.
When you look at what has actually happened to Iran’s principal instruments of power – its ballistic missile arsenal, its nuclear infrastructure, its air defences, its navy and its proxy command architecture – the picture is not one of US failure. It is one of systematic, phased degradation of a threat that previous administrations allowed to grow for four decades.
Seloom’s clear-eyed assessment of the current state of the war is refreshing. I highly recommend reading the full article.
Miller’s victory sends an unmistakable message: even in deep-blue Illinois, voters are rejecting the anti-Israel, anti-war propaganda being pushed by (mostly) Democratic politicians in Washington and amplified by the legacy media. They recognize the disconnect — and they’re rejecting it at the ballot box.
AIPAC, via dark money, has spent $1.5 million in IL02. Most of that spending has been this TV ad supporting Donna Miller, touting her Planned Parenthood leadership. The ad is paid by “Affordable Chicago Now,” a dark money group with no reported donors. pic.twitter.com/z1wFevIiw7
— Frank Calabrese (@FrankCalabrese) February 24, 2026
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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Comments
While funny, groypers aren’t the hardest hit, as they are largely irrelevant to anyone except the far left. Politics is a circle where extremes find shared values.
This is Dem infighting and I love it. Will she hold the line like Fetterman if actually elected? We’ll have to see.
Like Fetterman? The guy who’s voting against the SAVE act?
NO Democrat is a friend.
Just be aware of the left’s “Spanberger technique.”
A pro israel dem wins the….but for the moment
if the blmplo armies get to her she will flip and have gladly used the big time money that filled her coffers
A broken clock is still right only 2/day. So she’s right on one issue. What about all the others?
She beat Jesse Jackson Jr.
You mean the criminal JJ Jr. Well I suppose that earns him street creds.
“social media isnt real life”
WRONG
whatever its actual percentage of reality…it doesnt take but a few bad falaffels to ruin the pie
Social Media Is Not Real Life
It’s a 12 hour delay from social media post to evening broadcast news report.
I am somewhat befuddled as to why you think your final tweet supports your immediately previous observation that “voters are rejecting the anti-Israel, anti-war propaganda.” By falling for competing propaganda?
People say the United States is a Christian nation, but we are culturally Jewish.
Our entertainment industry — movies, TV, books — has been owned by Jews. Our most successful writers and comedians have been Jewish.
Britain has PG Wodehouse and Monty Python. We have George Burns and Seinfeld. Our dominant science fiction tropes come from Isaac Asimov. Our most successful movie maker is Spielberg.
One hears a lot of complaints about how Jews control Hollywood. Of course they do. They BUILT Hollywood.
exactly
why not be proud of it!!??
blks>>you’re in charge of pro sports nba nfl
you run the streets
you run the schools
you have laws that make you almost untouchable
you have people in fear that makes you untouchable
^^^^blks^^^ and proud of it
jews cower in fear as they are top notch in
hollywood
schools
business
man………..
Dominant s/f tropes? Like Star Trek? Gene was a Baptist. Or Heinlein? Burroughs? Lovecraft? Where are the Jews?
Try taking your islamonazi goggles off once in a while.
“They are cataloguing the price of the campaign while ignoring the strategic ledger.”
As I wrote (here?) a week ago – The cost of the war in blood and treasure must be measured against the potential cost of an Iranian nuclear strike on one of more major US cities at some time in the (fairly) near future.
The math is totally on the side of doing something about the threat now so that we don’t have to retaliate later.
But, as has been pointed out, Iran has been “weeks away” from a nuclear weapon for decades.
Al Jazeera is more clear headed than The Spectator. Who knew?
Chris Caldwell has written in the Spectator that “Trumpism” (whatever that is) is dead…. i.e, the Iran war is going badly — Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing, even MAGA influencers TCarlson, MKelly and their class (who cares?) are doubting the worthiness and success of Trump’s strategy…(paraphrasing here). So refreshing to see Al Jazeera get it right and Caldwell at the Spectator get it wrong.
Meanwhile in IL-9, the seat that Jan Schakowsky is vacating, the winner was a “progressive” Jew; the runner-up was the antisemites’ candidate. AIPAC’s preferred candidate came in third.
The question is whether voters care about Iran’s “ballistic missile arsenal, its nuclear infrastructure, its air defences, its navy and its proxy command architecture” or exclusively about negative impacts on the cost of their fuel.
It would appear some voters cling to party above all else, blame Trump and the Jews, not Iran, for the oil issue – whilst simultaneously condemning the West for its use of fossil fuel, and generally sympathise with the ayatollahs.