Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ) told the other lawmakers of the Arizona congressional delegation that she will run for the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Jeff Flake, the Arizona Republic and Associated Press reported Tuesday.
The Hill’s Scott Wong confirmed that McSally told her colleagues about her plans to enter the GOP primary.
Confirmed: AZ lawmakers tell me @RepMcSally (R-AZ) will run for @JeffFlake's open Senate seat #AZSEN
— Scott Wong (@scottwongDC) November 7, 2017
GOSAR says McSALLY personally informed him she's running for Senate. He said he's still looking at the race https://t.co/0n2U182NW1
— Scott Wong (@scottwongDC) November 7, 2017
Flake announced in October that he will not seek re-election in 2018, saying that there “may not be a place for a Republican like me in the current Republican climate or the current Republican Party.”
McSally will face off against at least one other Republican in the primary, former state Sen. Kelli Ward, and other Republicans are likely to announce primary bids now that Flake has ducked out. Ward had already announced a primary challenge to Flake in the Republican primary and declared his retirement a “victory.”
Here’s to a horrifically expensive mudslinging primary
Nice to know that her congressional seat will now go to a Democrat (it was already considered a tossup).
Now, let’s all support Kelli Ward for the GOP nomination.
Impossible to like a GOPer, but…damn…
Martha Elizabeth McSally (born March 22, 1966) is a retired United States Air Force Colonel and politician who has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 2015. She was the first American woman to fly in combat following the 1991 lifting of the prohibition on woman combat pilots. She flew the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II ‘Warthog’ close air support aircraft over Iraq and Kuwait during Operation Southern Watch. She is the first woman to command a USAF fighter squadron, the 354th Fighter Squadron (354 FS) based at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
Lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense (McSally v. Rumsfeld)[edit]
McSally was represented by the Rutherford Institute in a successful 2001 lawsuit against the Department of Defense, challenging the military policy that required U.S. and U.K. servicewomen stationed in Saudi Arabia to wear the body-covering abaya when traveling off base in the country. At the time of the lawsuit McSally, as a Major (O-4), was the highest ranking female fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force. Her suit alleged "the regulations required her to send the message that she believes women are subservient to men." In addition to the issue of religious garb, McSally noted that policies also included other requirements:
In a “60 Minutes” interview broadcast on CBS on January 20, 2002, she described the discrimination she experienced under the policy: “I have to sit in the back and at all times I must be escorted by a male … [who], when questioned, is supposed to claim me as his wife,” she said. “I can fly a single-seat aircraft in enemy territory, but [in Saudi Arabia] I can’t drive a vehicle.”
Her gender is irrelevant. Whatever she did before in her life is irrelevant. In this climate, in this Congress, under this administration, if she’s a Republican, she supports everything that they do. She’s embracing the misogyny, racism, fucking the poor, enforcing control over women’s bodies, destroying the environment, and every god damn horrible thing that Republicans in Congress support. She doesn’t get a pass. She doesn’t get any token of respect.
reminders