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MJ Hegar needs to clear one thing up — a false impression she hears quite a bit from DC varieties interested in whether, in her race towards Senator John Cornyn, she will replicate the kind of success fellow Texan Beto O’Rourke had in his slender 2018 loss to Ted Cruz.
She knows what the beltway knowledge says: That Cornyn is a stronger candidate than Cruz was — extra likable, less polarizing. She thinks it’s nonsense.
“It is a widespread misperception that Ted Cruz is wildly unpopular in the state,” stated Hegar in an interview for POLITICO’s Women Rule podcast. “Ted Cruz minimize his tooth politically in Texas on disrupting the Republican institution, and Texans love a fighter. It’s the identical factor that has made me profitable is that when individuals take a look at me, they see a fighter, any person who takes on the institution, who isn’t intimidated, and is prepared to kick via doors.”
“That is extra of a Ted Cruz state than it is a Donald Trump state,” stated Hegar. Which is why she believes she will win.
Central to Hegar’s political id is her army service, which incorporates three tours in Afghanistan. On the final of those tours, she piloted a helicopter that was shot down by the Taliban. Hegar herself was shot in the process. In the ensuing rescue mission, her actions saved the lives of her crew and earned her the Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor. The door from that helicopter now hangs on a wall in her home — and was featured in a viral advert throughout her 2018 congressional marketing campaign.
That race, which Hegar misplaced by less than three proportion factors, noticed her attempt to flip a closely Republican seat within the suburbs of Austin — a district “gerrymandered to be much redder than the remainder of the state, so it was really like an enormous focus group for operating a statewide marketing campaign,” stated Hegar. “Should you regulate for the gerrymandering, we might have gained that race if it was a mini Texas.”
The candidate recollects driving via the northern part of her district and seeing houses boasting yard signs supporting both her and Ted Cruz.
“I might be like, ‘Stop the automotive,’ and go discover out what’s happening,” she stated. “And I might knock on the door, they usually would say, ‘We don’t care. We don’t care what your coverage positions are. We simply need a fighter. We all know you guys will disagree and you’ll struggle towards each other typically, but you’ll be preventing for us.’”
Hegar says that Cornyn doesn’t take pleasure in that kind of fame.
“He’s all the time just in type of coast mode, and self-preservation, and simply not leading and taking any risks. And you realize, that’s not one thing that folks would normally say about Ted Cruz, although I disagree with what Ted Cruz thinks is right for this state,” she stated. “Texans and unbiased voters wish to vote for someone who is going to buck the status quo, and isn’t going to do as he is advised.”
Working example: the looming impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump.
Cornyn is “full-on in help of the president without seeing any evidence and any results of investigation,” stated Hegar. “And that considerations me regardless of what your social gathering is.”
Hegar, who helps the investigation, stated she is “equally” troubled by “anybody who’s going to reflex to, ‘We absolutely have to impeach.’ You realize, not simply the investigation, however truly voting [Trump] out of office as a result of they don’t like his insurance policies. I don’t like his policies, but I want to see him lose an election as a result of his policies aren’t working for working families in Texas.”
Famously, Democrats have not gained a statewide office in Texas in a quarter-century, by means of election cycle after cycle of pundits chattering concerning the seeming inevitability of the ruby-red Republican crown jewel, turning blue. O’Rourke came shut in 2018, dropping to Cruz by three factors.
For her half, Hegar is undaunted.
“Having a path to elected office was never the aim for me,” she stated. “I’m a medevac pilot. I've hung out suppressing wildfires and issues like that. And as a combat pilot, I are likely to find the most important bucket of water I can discover and put it on the largest hearth I can find, right?”
To hear extra from MJ Hegar, take heed to the complete podcast here. Ladies Rule takes listeners backstage with feminine bosses for actual speak on how they made it and what recommendation they have for ladies trying to lead.
Article originally revealed on POLITICO Magazine
Src: MJ Hegar sees path to victory in Texas — and it looks like Ted Cruz’s
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