AZ Senate: Martha McSally (R)
PROFILE
About McSally:
Incumbent Martha McSally earned an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy in 1988 before receiving her master’s from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1990. McSally was graduate number 21 of 103 in her USAF pilot training class.
McSally was the first woman to fly a fighter jet in combat and the first woman to command a fighter squadron in combat in United States history.
In 2001, McSally sued the Department of Defense, overturning its policy requiring stationed U.S. and U.K. servicewomen in Saudi Arabia to wear the body-covering abaya when traveling off base. McSally served 26 years in the Air Force before retiring in 2010 as a Colonel.
In 2014, McSally became the first female Republican representative of Arizona in the House of Representatives when she beat incumbent Rep. Ron Barber for Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District. In 2018, McSally ran for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by retiring Sen. Jeff Flake.
McSally lost the 2018 Senate general election to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, but was appointed later that same year by Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to fill Sen. John McCain’s Senate seat following his death.
McSally voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2015.
McSally contrasts herself with opponent Mark Kelly on gun issues by framing Kelly’s endorsements of pro-gun control candidates as infringement on the Second Amendment. McSally opposes limits on gun sales and has received $682,540 from gun rights groups as of Sept. 2020.
McSally voted in support of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and opposes raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. Though a supporter of DACA until 2018, McSally criticized the use of executive action by former-President Barack Obama to establish the program.
