The next secretary of state in Illinois could be from Joliet.

Diane Harris, a Joliet Junior College trustee who won the Republican primary on March 17, will be on the road for much of the next six months to try to make that happen.

“I’m getting around, and I really appreciate all the help that I’m getting,” Harris said in reflecting on her victory and the challenge ahead.

Harris was relatively unknown until she campaigned across much of downstate Illinois in her successful bid for the Republican nomination.

“I think I had 100 Lincoln Day Dinners,” she said, referring to rallying events held by local Republican Party organizations around the state. “I went there and introduced myself.”

The strategy apparently worked.

Harris won nearly everywhere downstate, while her opponent, Walter Adamczyk, won throughout the Chicago region.

Adamczyk also took Will County, which bothers Harris but does not deter her.

“I still don’t understand how I did not do well in Will County,” she said.

Harris has been a perennial candidate since she her first political campaign in 2011 when she ran for mayor of Joliet after retiring from ComEd.

Her first election victory was 2023, when Harris was elected to the JJC board. She also is a member of the Joliet Public Library Board of Trustees, an appointed position.

Harris for several years owned a downtown Joliet clothing boutique named It Is Amazing.

While Harris was not well known in Illinois ahead of the primary election, neither was her opponent. Adamczyk is a ward committeeman in Chicago, where Republicans are few. Harris’s election to the JJC board at least put her on ballots in the seven counties that make up the college college district.

The Republican party’s inability to put a recognized name on the ballot for secretary of state, traditionally a highly sought state office, may be a reflection of the dominance Democrats now have in Illinois.

The Democratic candidate, incumbent Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, is running for a second term. He was unopposed in the primary.

Harris said she sees hope ahead for her party.

“There are a lot of Democratic policies that people are not happy with, and they could be glad to vote red,” she said.

Harris said she planned to “stay conservative in my values” and make herself known before November.

“I’m going to have to get out and meet the people,” she said. “They’re going to have to see and hear both sides of the aisle. I don’t believe people are sold on the Democratic Party right now.”