As a leader on domestic violence issues, Cassandra Tanner Miller is running for Congress to bring a voice to the many people who are being left behind voiceless. Having lived the experience of suffering the ultimate tragedy, she is able to bring awareness and a face to the failures we have as a state and country. Safety begins at home and domestic violence is not an isolated issue; it incorporates many issues that we need to address federally for the hopes of a safer tomorrow.
Cassandra grew up in a house full of abuse and neglect as a child, where she lost her mother to cancer at the age of 10. With the help of her brother, John, and his wife, Elizabeth, who legally became her mother and father, she escaped her childhood household to safety. Cassandra went to Sacred Heart Elementary and Montini Catholic Schools and, always wanting to give back, got involved in Republican politics at a young age. She was nominated for a Presidential Youth Leadership Council where she saw politics firsthand in New York and Washington, DC. She went on to volunteer for political campaigns throughout DuPage County while in high school. She then studied political science at Eastern Illinois University.
In 2017, Cassandra became an army wife when she married a captain of the National Guard. Only two years later, Cassandra suffered an unfathomable tragedy. Her 18-month-old son, Colton, was brutally murdered by her then-estranged husband. She almost lost her life that day having suffered damages from strangulation and the beating that she endured protecting her children. Her daughter, Camryn, survived at the age of 9.
Since that terrible day Cassandra has leaned on her faith and used it to bring about change.
She began advocating for domestic violence, becoming a voice for awareness and education. She picked herself up and traveled the State of Illinois, sharing her story with sheriffs’ offices, police departments and court systems in hopes to make a difference.
With the help of Republican State Representative David Welter, she created Colton’s Domestic Violence Task Force in “Colton’s Law” that unanimously passed the Illinois House and Senate and Governor Pritzker signed into law on August 20th, 2021.
Cassandra now sits on the board of Domestic Fatality Review Commission in Illinois and Colton’s Task Force. Cassandra is training to be a Guardian Ad Litem to help children in need.
Everyday people across the country, scared for their safety and feeling they have nowhere else to turn, reach out to Cassandra for help. Every day she helps them. Now she wants to help them even more. Cassandra Tanner Miller is running for Congress to speak for them and for so many others that have problems from domestic violence and beyond.
Cassandra is now happily married to Brady Johnson, an electric union laborer. They live in Elgin with her 11-year-old daughter, Camryn, a forever 18th month old son named Colton, and a baby boy on the way. They have two dogs: Bob and a rescue dog named Ares.
