MJ Hegar’s service to her country began long before she decided to run for Senate. As an Air Force pilot, she served three tours in Afghanistan, receiving the Distinguished Cross for Valor, one of the few women to do so, and the Purple Heart, for making courageous sacrifices and sustaining injuries in the line of fire on her third tour. Upon leaving the military, she went home to Texas, where she continued advocating for gender equality in the military before running for Congress in Texas’s 31st District in 2018. In that race, she managed to come within a three-point margin of victory in a historically Republican district, evidence of a major political shift happening in the state.

This year, she will build on that momentum in a Senate race against John Cornyn, one of the Senate’s top recipients of NRA funds. As a survivor of childhood domestic gun violence and a veteran, MJ understands the trauma that guns can inflict both on the battlefield and at home. On the campaign trail, MJ has proven her commitment to gun safety by openly calling for passing universal background checks, enacting extreme risk protection orders, and closing the boyfriend loophole, and she will no doubt continue to be a gun safety champion when she is elected this fall.

We are proud to endorse MJ Hegar for the US Senate in 2020.