MJ Hegar

I've seen men and women who were fit for combat that I wanted to fight beside, and men and women who I really wouldn't want to go back into combat with. It really doesn't have anything to do with gender.

I've voted in a Republican primary in the past. That's something unique to Texas and a handful of other states, that we don't register as Republicans or Democrats. We vote in whichever primary we think it's more critical at the time.

My district doesn't come to vote to the polls against something because they fear something. They will come to the polls to vote for something because they are inspired by something.

Texans deserve a senator who represents our values, strength, courage, independence - putting Texas first.

I didn't get a pilot slot my first time trying. We Texans don't give up easy, and everything we've accomplished is just the beginning.

I'm kind of used to people trying to define me or, you know, lying about me.

Being in a male-dominated career field as a combat pilot, I got used to kind of blocking out the lies in the attacks that people would levy against me and trying to tell me who I am and define who I am when I know what I'm fighting for.

I'm very confident, that I'm going to be able to deliver better leadership to Texas than John Cornyn does - more reflective of Texas values than we are of D.C. values, which is what John Cornyn represents to most Texans.

And I'm used to being underestimated and I'm used to taking on tough fights and winning.

So, you know, I actually don't think it's going to be that hard to spread the message to people that their leadership - not alone John Cornyn, but including John Cornyn in a big way - is failing us.

When I was in my third tour in Afghanistan, I was shot down. I was injured to the point where I couldn't fly anymore, so I looked into what ground jobs I could do that fulfilled me as an adrenaline junkie and, more importantly, utilized my experience.

I experienced a lot of discrimination in the military. One commander told me that if my time of the month got in the way of my job, he would fire me. An instructor in pilot training continually failed me for subjective things, like judgment and situational awareness--I couldn't get him to tell me what I was doing wrong.

It's important not to try to convince others of your own reasons for change. Finding the reason why they should want to support your efforts is the key to effective change management.

I think women are sick of the men in office telling us they are going to protect our rights and fight for us.

We have seen a lot of barriers removed for women like myself with young children to be able to run for office.

I didn't want to crash into the ocean, but from watching Han Solo navigate an asteroid field to watching movies like 'Perfect Storm,' it would always kind of get my adrenaline up, and I knew it was something I wanted to do.

I have long-since said that working... together and accomplishing things in a bipartisan way doesn't mean compromising your values.

I think we have some amazing leaders. But then we have some leaders who turn a blind eye to things that contribute negatively to a really difficult culture for women.

Yeah, I kind of looked around and I can't understand why nobody else is speaking up. Later when I faced the backlash of speaking up, I realized why nobody did.

I never dreamed to be a fighter pilot, because those guys are jerks.

A lot of people ask why I don't fly for the airlines now. It's because of the rebel in me that doesn't like rules.

I'm not a big fan of dealing with stereotypes because I think everybody's unique and I have met plenty of people who have bucked their stereotypes. But there are things that women are physiologically better suited to.

In the military, we are thrown into a melting pot of cultures and communities and we disagree a lot on how to accomplish the mission, but when it comes time to get the work done, we focus our energy on accomplishing the mission.

We've got to tell our stories to influence culture, and we have to get more people elected who have faced challenges like domestic violence, working minimum-wage jobs, wondering how to get food on the table... regular people.

If we elect people who have never been to public school, never had to worry about counting on Social Security, then how can they effectively legislate?

The people who are sending our men and women in uniform into conflict need to understand that there are some things worth fighting for, but also understand the high cost of war.

Many don't think that there are women serving in combat roles. Others think that women who do serve in combat shrink in fear when the bullets fly. I know differently.

History will do what it always does. It will make ignorant statements, in retrospect, seem shortsighted and discriminatory, and the women who will serve their country bravely in the jobs that are now opening up will prove them wrong. Just like we always have.

We have the tools to be a stronger nation than we were before Sept. 11, 2001. We have learned valuable lessons about the danger of growing enemies and the importance of developing alliances.

If we are to retain our position as the world's leading superpower, we must maintain our influence and diplomatic relationships. We cannot do that if we become known for abandoning our allies and reneging on our promises.

Our nation's leaders are fallible. It is therefore time for us to be our own heroes. We can and must be the leaders that are so desperately needed.

I am for the Second Amendment, but I am for common-sense gun legislation.

I'm a medevac pilot. I have spent time suppressing wildfires and things like that. And as a combat pilot, I tend to find the biggest bucket of water I can find and put it on the biggest fire I can find, right?

I'm not a violent person, but I'm a capable person. I'm never looking for a fight. But I'm always ready for one.

I am a combat veteran and a working mom and a fighter, and I've already been successful taking on the dark forces in D.C.

We need to have leaders that aren't afraid to go against the grain to call out failures in leadership.

Our country has an opportunity to live up to our title as the leaders of the free world and to live up to our potential as being a beacon of freedom and hope and democracy - but not while that opportunity is not equal for everyone.

We have to be leaders and sacrifice our own egos and be humble and go in and figure out what their values are, and then speak to those values.

Texas kind of operates as if we're our own little country.

The biggest problem in our government is that even those people who are there that are good and well-intended, there's too many people in positions to write legislation who have never experienced the challenges of regular people.

There's a reason that you hear something like 90 percent of our country wants universal background checks, but we can't get it passed legislatively. If we had a true representative democracy, 90 percent of our elected officials would want universal background checks.

I have a history with domestic violence myself. I have toddlers in my home, and I'm a gun owner. And, as a veteran, I'm a member of a community that has a very high suicide rate. So all of those things have touched my life.

I think it's very clear to be able to be a working-class mom of two and veteran and to be able to take on an entrenched, establishment, dark-money-backed Washington lackey, that I'm gonna have to be able to excite people and gain momentum and gain attention and get people excited and energized.

Ted Cruz cut his teeth politically in Texas on disrupting the Republican establishment, and Texans love a fighter. It's the same thing that has made me successful is that when people look at me, they see a fighter, somebody who takes on the establishment, who isn't intimidated, and is willing to kick through doors.

Texans and independent voters like to vote for somebody who is going to buck the status quo, and isn't going to do as he is told.

Having a path to elected office was never the goal for me.

In the military, there's a sense of camaraderie that can sometimes make people bystanders. There were a lot of really good men that I served with, but many of them watched me get discriminated against while looking the other way.

We take responsibility for being firearm owners. We take responsibility for whose hands those guns get into.

With the situation I was in when I was shot down, I self-identified as having PTSD.

You know, when men perform in combat, they're expected to perform well. That's part of being masculine. And when one of them doesn't perform well, that man alone has let the team down, and that man alone is judged for it.