Historically, women have needed to be convinced to enter politics. But since the 2016 presidential election, thousands of women announced their plans to run for public office. And we want them
to win. So we're giving them examples of women who have run. The point: You can too.
If you’re not one of the three million people who watched MJ Hegar’s
Though she lost, Hegar left her mark—creating a competitive race in a red district. Now, she’s hoping to bring some of that fire to her own Senate campaign this year. Back in July, Hegar won the close Democratic primary runoff against state Sen. Royce West, meaning she’ll be going up against Sen. John Cornyn this November, a Trump-endorsed Republican who’s been in office since 2002. Democrats haven’t won a statewide office in Texas in more than 20 years, but, if anything, 2018 proved some seats might not be as safe as they once were.
Talking to ELLE.com from her home in Texas—she had to interrupt the call at one point to help her kid with virtual kindergarten—Hegar discusses why she decided to jump back into electoral politics.
They say you have to ask a woman seven times before she'll run for office. For the 2018 congressional race here in Texas, I was asked, and I kept saying no. Then somebody told me, "Oh that's right, we have to ask seven times before y'all say yes."
I thought, "Well, I'm not going to be a statistic. I'll just do it."
I truly never intended to run for political office. My dream was to be Han Solo, so you can bet I came up with a lot of reasons for saying no initially. We are a two-income household. I just had a baby. We'd just bought a house; I didn’t think I could sustain paying our mortgage. I often tell people, there's never a good time to do something. But when the moment calls for action, you have to answer it.
Having spent 11 years serving our country in the military, I firmly believe it is my responsibility to fulfill the oath I took to support and defend the Constitution. I'm also a mom with two young boys, and I want to do everything I can to protect the world my sons and all our kiddos are growing up into. I believe we all want to make the world a better place for the next generation—and everybody has to look in their toolkit and figure out what that means for them.
When I was very little, I watched my mom and my sister be abused by my biological father, and it instilled in me a fierce protective streak: I will be strong enough to stand up for and protect the people that I love. I think that's why I became a rescue pilot. That's why when I see an injustice, I can't sleep if I'm not doing something to fix it.
For me, working to protect the world for my kids and standing up to those injustices led me to run. I knew that I had taken on really tough fights and been successful. I had served my country in uniform; I was a public speaker. I had life experiences that open the door for people who maybe never considered voting for a Democrat. I had a pretty good grasp of the issues, having worked in health care. I had a business acumen, with an executive MBA. I decided that if I think more people with my profile and my experiences—people who had faced many of the challenges that regular Texans face—should be in D.C., then I have an obligation to run.
When I lost that 2018 race, I thought it was supposed to feel like a gut punch. I had just put in all of my time and energy and so much sacrifice. At the beginning of the campaign, I was breastfeeding my youngest on the trail. But I loved it; I believe with all my heart that we left everything out on the field, and I had no regrets. It showed people, as did Beto, that you can't take these races for granted.
But I immediately knew I would not run again. I had taken a district that many had written off and brought the race within three points, and I knew there was something to that, but I kind of let it go. I got a job and refocused.
Fast forward a year, and friends started encouraging me to look at running for Senate. Again, I started with no. Then my four-year-old son said something to me. I guess we had successfully described to him why mommy was running for Congress, and he asked, "Mommy, are you still MJ for Texas?" I said, "No, mommy's just working now, just your mommy." He thought about it for a second, and I know this sounds crazy, but he said, "Does that mean that you're done protecting me? That the world is safe now?"
I thought, fuck. No, I'm not done protecting you. Of course not. That's when I started going, let me look at this and see if this is something that I should do.
He said, "Does that mean that you're done protecting me? That the world is safe now?"
You have to understand, before starting the congressional race, I was working full-time. I had a couple of months of bills in our savings account, and I ended the race with that depleted. That's where I would be starting this Senate campaign, and that terrified me. I was still against it until my husband said, "Maybe you're not the only person who could beat John Cornyn, but a lot of the other people talking about running can't." It was going to take a fighter who can build a broad coalition of support across Texas. I grew up in rural Texas. I'm a gun owner. I voted for John Cornyn in 2002. It would take someone with my profile to beat him.
My husband told me, "I know your dream hasn't been to be a senator. But think of how you will feel if you don't do it, and someone else runs and loses, and we miss the majority by one seat and we have to sit through another Brett Kavanaugh confirmation or another attempt to rip health care away from millions of people. I would rather live through another year and a half of a campaign than live with you for any amount of time after that, knowing that you could've done something about it and didn't."
He was right. And I knew, more importantly than beating Cornyn, that I could serve this state better. It's fulfilling a duty to my country. It's fulfilling my obligation as a parent and my oath that I took to the Constitution.
My kids are convinced that I'm a superhero, and I just won't tell them because I have to keep my secret identity. That I'm out there fighting injustice and fighting bad guys and fighting to get people access to health care and fighting to protect our reputation on the world stage. They hear me on town halls and on calls like this and they piece together what I'm doing, and they're convinced that I'm Captain Marvel. That keeps me going. I have to live up to that. My son was absolutely right. I'm not done fighting for them.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
