Hammond Faces Challenge from Right in Bid for 9th Term
Rep. Norine Hammond (R-Macomb) and primary challenger Josh Higgins.
Rep. Norine Hammond (R-Macomb) entered the House in 2010 following the death of former Rep. Rich Myers. She faced a primary challenge in 2018, but has mostly slid through to re-election without significant challengers.
Until 2026.
Hammond is facing the most significant primary challenge of her career from 40-year-old Air Force veteran, school board member, and crop insurance salesman Josh Higgins of Gladstone in Henderson County along the Iowa line.
Higgins entered politics at the local level arguing against mask mandates in schools and has led him to challenge Hammond from the right. He said the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last year spurred his effort to run for the House.
“When Charlie Kirk was assassinated, I’ll be honest with you, that was kind of the the precipice for this entire thing,” Higgins said. “I felt like it was a direct attack on faith and freedom. That was really the big thing for me. It just felt like there was something more that I could do.”
And the race against Hammond has led to many critiques of her voting record, including her vote for the 2017 tax increase that broke the state’s long running budget stalemate.
“There’s a lot of votes that she’s made that are about as anti-conservative as you can be,” Higgins said. “The biggest one is the fact that [she] voted with Democrats and nine other Republicans to break the veto of a of a Republican governor for the largest income tax hike in history. That’s what people bring up the most, which kind of blew my mind. I figured it would be one of the more recent things, but that’s what people bring up the most around here.”
But Hammond defends her record.
“I do stand by my record,” she said. “I have a conservative record of fighting back against Governor Pritzker and the anti-growth and the anti-business policies that he keeps putting in place [that are] roadblocks for our state. People know that I’m effective. And having that experience and being able to make a difference, be a voice that’s going to be heard, I think is extremely important.”
The race has reached extreme levels of bitterness in recent weeks as the House Republican Organization, the House GOP campaign arm, which is supporting Hammond, began attacking Higgins for a 2011 domestic violence arrest that he was never formally charged for.
“It’s dirty pool because, first of all, they obviously leave a lot of what’s factual about it out. I was never convicted. Two years later, I went through a federal investigation where I was given a top secret security clearance,” he said. “I believe that a lot of it was slanderous. There’s some untruth to it.”
While Hammond didn’t play a direct role in the attack on Higgins, she is a member of House GOP leadership and has not called on the HRO to pull the attacks.
“I wouldn’t call it tacit approval. But I will say that we have to stand by our record,” she said. “And if my opponent is not willing to stand by his record and own it and and speak to it directly and honestly, then I shouldn’t have to fight for him.”
Higgins has pledged to join the House Freedom Caucus, the group of ultra-conservative Republican members seen by many at the Capitol as an ineffective group of legislators.
“The Freedom Caucus guys believe mostly what I believe in. And they’ve been incredible to me. They’ve been incredible to my family and they’ve been supportive,” Higgins said. “[People say] ‘you know, once you get in the Freedom Caucus, it’s kind of there’s kind of the stigma about it’. Well, I don’t know and I don’t really care. Do I think it’s going to make it tougher on me? I mean, I’m sure that it will. But, you know, the Republican Party as a whole has made it pretty tough on me.”
Hammond argues voters want an advocate in Springfield who can get things done.
“I think it’s worth having someone there that is experienced, that knows the issues, and is willing to get in there and fight the fight and have a voice that’s going to be heard,” Hammond said. “[Voters] absolutely want somebody who isn’t going to merely go to Springfield, take up a chair, and take up air. They want somebody that is going to go that knows the issues, knows the people they can talk to, and knows the people that they can work with to get something done for our district.”
Hammond, 73, says she hasn’t decided how long she wants to continue to serve in the General Assembly.
A third candidate in the race, Bailey Templeton of Hamilton, finished 2025 with $0 in the bank. Hammond has a significant fundraising advantage in the race.
The sweeping district stretches about 120 miles north to south and around 100 miles east to west and includes all or parts of 12 counties.
