MJ Hegar: "Texans Have Very Sensitive BS Meters"
MJ Hegar is one of eleven Democrats vying for the chance to face incumbent John Cornyn in the 2020 U.S. Senate election. In an October poll of Democrats by the University of Texas and the Texas Tribune, Hegar led the pack with 12 percent support. But the bigger takeaway from the poll might have been how few voters recognized the names of the candidates: even Hegar had just 20 percent name recognition. For Hegar, that means her campaign has to play offense on two fronts: explaining to voters who she is and why she believes Cornyn is bad for Texas.
“I hate talking about him,” says Hegar, who in 2018 narrowly lost a bid for Texas’s Thirty-First Congressional District to incumbent Republican John Carter. “It depresses me, but also because [Cornyn] has such a low name ID, I feel like I’m elevating him. I feel like more people are listening to me than him and they’re thinking, ‘John who? Oh yeah, that guy.’ He’s been a statewide politician here for nearly four decades and has very low name ID, which should tell you something about how much he’s leading and working.”
Ahead of the 2018 House race, Hegar introduced herself via a campaign ad titled “Doors.” The video focused on her military experience and fight to have the military overturn its ban on women in combat positions. The ad went viral and helped her raise $5.1 million. She wound up losing by just under 3 percent—impressive, considering that Carter had won reelection just two years earlier by a 22-point margin. Earlier this year, the New York Times introduced its readers to “The Woman You Missed While You Were Paying Attention to Beto” and concluded that “M.J. Hegar’s kind of like Ann Richards crossed with Barbara Bush—with a Purple Heart and a Distinguished Flying Cross.”
Indeed, Hegar became a commissioned officer in the Air Force after graduating from the University of Texas and ultimately served three tours in Afghanistan as a combat search-and-rescue and medevac pilot. During a rescue mission in Afghanistan, her helicopter was destroyed by the Taliban. Injuries she sustained from enemy gunfire earned her the Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor, but also left her unable to continue flying. She says her fight against a Defense Department rule that prohibited women from serving in ground combat positions showed her that Washington was broken and inspired her congressional run.
Read more: https://www.texasmonthly.com/podcast/mj-hegar-senate-2020-election/
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