Martha McSally

Early life and education

McSally was born in 1966 in Warwick, Rhode Island, the youngest of five children. In 1978, her father, Bernard, a lawyer, died of a heart attack. Her mother, Eleanor, worked as a reading specialist to support the family.

McSally graduated at the top of her class at St. Mary's Academy, Bayview in 1984. She earned an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy, graduating in 1988. She earned a Master's degree from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government following graduation from USAFA and then proceeded to pilot training. McSally was first in her class at the Air War College.

Military career

McSally earned her USAF Pilot wings following graduation from Undergraduate Pilot Training at Laughlin AFB, Texas and was initially assigned to Laughlin as a First Assignment Instructor Pilot (FAIP) in the T-37 jet trainer. Following the repeal of the combat aircraft restriction for female pilots, she completed Lead-in Fighter Training (LIFT) in 1993. McSally became the first woman in U.S. history to fly a combat aircraft into enemy territory when she flew into Iraq in support of the United Nations no-fly zone enforcement.

McSally completed Replacement Training Unit for the A-10 Thunderbolt II at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, and was assigned to an operational A-10 squadron and was deployed to Kuwait in January 1995. During that deployment, she flew combat patrols over Iraq in support of Operation Southern Watch, enforcing the no-fly zone over southern Iraq. In 1999, she deployed to Europe in support of Operation Allied Force. McSally was selected as one of seven active duty Air Force officers for the Legislative Fellowship program, during which time she lived in Washington, D.C. and advised Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) on defense and foreign affairs policy.

Promoted to Major, she reported to Joint Task Force Southwest Asia (JTF-SWA) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2000 for an Operation Southern Watch temporary assignment. Promoted below the zone to Lieutenant Colonel, she took command of the A-10 equipped 354th Fighter Squadron at Davis-Monthan AFB in July 2004, and was subsequently deployed to Afghanistan under Operation Enduring Freedom, where she employed weapons loaded on her A-10 in combat for the first time. In 2005, McSally and her squadron were awarded the David C. Shilling Award, given by the Air Force Association for the best aerospace contribution to national defense.

Lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense (McSally v. Rumsfeld)

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."

During this process, she was granted audience with several high-level officials, including two Secretaries of Defense, William Cohen and Donald Rumsfeld, which was atypical of a service member of her comparatively junior rank and position, especially in light of her public protest. General Tommy Franks, then commander of the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM), announced in 2002 that U.S. military servicewomen would no longer be required to wear the abaya, although they would be "encouraged" to do so as a show of respect for local customs. Commenting on the change, Central Command spokesman, Colonel Rick Thomas, said it was not made because of McSally's lawsuit, but had already been "under review" before the lawsuit was filed. News reports noted that McSally had been fighting for a change in the policy for seven years, and had filed the lawsuit after she had been threatened with a court martial if she did not comply and wear the abaya.

Critics of the policy noted that while female U.S. military personnel had been required to wear the abaya outside of military installations in Saudi Arabia, the situation was not the same for "women diplomats" of the U.S. Department of State assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, who were actually encouraged not to wear the abaya when they were involved in official business, "...because they are representing the United States." Others noted that the two departments frequently have different policies and procedures in foreign countries such as alcohol consumption in Afghanistan which is permitted by the State Department but prohibited for military personnel by General Order #1. Embassy officials stated that, "...in their personal time, embassy employees can choose how to dress." According to these U.S. officials, "...the Saudi government does not require non-Muslim women to wear a dark robe known as an abaya.... The official guidance, issued by the Saudi Embassy in Washington, says that foreigners should dress conservatively but they are not required to wear the robe."

Eventually the U.S. Congress "approved legislation that prohibited anyone in the military from requiring or encouraging servicewomen to put on abayas in Saudi Arabia or to use taxpayers’ money to buy them."

Retirement

McSally has continued to speak out about gender relations in Saudi Arabia. McSally retired from active duty with 22 years of commissioned service in the U.S. Air Force on May 6, 2010. As of March 2011, she worked as a professor at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

2012 election

On February 9, 2012, McSally announced her candidacy for the special election for Arizona's 8th congressional district vacancy created by the resignation of Gabrielle Giffords. She was an unsuccessful candidate in the Republican nomination for the special election, losing to Republican nominee Jesse Kelly.

McSally then ran for and won the Republican nomination in the regular election for the district, which had been renumbered as the 2nd District. She faced incumbent Democrat Ron Barber and Libertarian nominee Anthony Powell in the November 2012 election. She was endorsed by the National Federation of Independent Businesses, United States Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Wholesalers, of Commerce, National Association of Home Builders and Associated Builders and Contractors.

The race was one of the closest in the nation. McSally led on election night by a few hundred votes, but the race was deemed too close to call due to a large number of provisional ballots. Barber eventually overtook McSally as more ballots were counted. By November 16, most of the outstanding ballots were in heavily Democratic precincts near Tucson. The Arizona Republic determined that as a result, McSally would not be able to pick up enough votes to overcome Barber's lead. By November 17, Barber's lead over McSally had grown to 1,400 votes. That day, the Associated Press determined that there weren't enough ballots outstanding for McSally to regain the lead, and called the race for Barber. She conceded the race later that morning.

2014 election

McSally declared her intention of running again for the 2nd district seat in 2014. She won the June 3 primary against 2 other Republican opponents, taking nearly 70% of the vote. In the November 4 general election, the race was too close to call by the end of election night, and eventually went on to be the final federal election of the 2014 cycle to be decided. With 100% of the votes counted, McSally had a 161-vote lead and declared victory on November 12, 2014, but due to the fact that the margin of victory was less than 1%, an automatic recount was called on December 1. On December 17, the official recount declared McSally the winner by 167 votes. She is only the second Republican ever to represent a southern Arizona-based district in the U.S. House of Representatives; the first was Jim Kolbe, who represented what is now the 2nd district, from 1985 to 2007. McSally is also the first female Republican representative from Arizona.

2016 election

McSally ran for re-election in 2016. She ran unopposed in the Republican primary. She defeated Democratic opponent Matt Heinz by a margin of 57 to 43 percent in the general election.

Tenure

In her freshman term in Congress, McSally had seven bills approved by the U.S. House. Among all members of the U.S. House, McSally is tied for third in the number of bills she has authored that have made it through the House. Her bills are generally "narrowly drawn proposals to improve homeland security or to help veterans."

McSally added an amendment to the proposed Department of Defense budget for 2017 (H.R. 5293) that would limit funding for military band performances.

Committee assignments

Political positions

McSally has voted with her party in 96% of votes so far in the current session of Congress and voted in line with President Trump's position in 100% of the votes. For the 114th United States Congress, McSally was ranked as the 30th most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives (and the second most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona) in the Bipartisan Index created by The Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy that ranks members of the United States Congress by their degree of bipartisanship (by measuring the frequency each member's bills attract co-sponsors from the opposite party and each member's co-sponsorship of bills by members of the opposite party).

She has been criticized for dodging questions, not taking firm positions, and for avoiding media. The Douglas Dispatch criticized her in an editorial for a lack of transparency: "This isn't the type of communication you would expect from a newly elected official who we hoped had a streak of independence outside of Washington politics... It's difficult to be transparent when sit-downs with constituents are closed to the media. We're told that people will talk freely if the media is not present. That may be true, but all citizens have a right to know what's being asked and how the congresswoman truly views an issue."

Donald Trump

McSally refused to take a position on whether she recommended voters in her district to vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

In February 2017, she voted against a resolution that would have directed the House to request 10 years of Trump's tax returns, which would then have been reviewed by the House Ways and Means Committee in a closed session.

Education

She also supports local control of education, stating that, “education for our kids should not be dictated by Washington bureaucrats but by local experts with parent involvement and rewards for excellence. Hard-earned middle-class-taxpayer money should not go to D.C. to strip funds off the top, then return to the states with conditions, paperwork and mandates resulting in cookie-cutter educational recipes."

Environment and energy

She opposes government funding for the development of renewable energy, such as solar, wind and thermal energy. She is in favor of barring the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions. She strongly opposed President Obama's Clean Power Plan, which aimed to requires power producers to reduce emissions 32% from 2005 levels by 2030.

The League of Conservation Voters has given McSally a lifetime score of 3%.

McSally has sought the removal of the Mexican wolf from the endangered species act list. She also has introduced legislation in the House to halt a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recovery program that aims to reintroduce the wolf to areas in Arizona, a position supported by ranchers.

Foreign and defense policy

Politico described her as "hawkish" in 2016. She criticized the international nuclear agreement with Iran and has praised defense contractors. During the House consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016, McSally, along with John McCain, fought to increase military spending, particularly on the Tomahawk missile and other programs of Raytheon Co., which is one of the largest employers in McSally's home state of Arizona. She has been an ardent opponent of the retirement of the A-10 'Warthog', a warplane which has a strong presence at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson. She opposes the budget sequestration's effects on military spending.

McSally has introduced legislation to reduce funding for U.S. military bands. McSally supports the indefinite detentions at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and opposed President Obama's efforts to close the camp.

Like other congressional Republicans, McSally criticized President Obama's approach to fighting ISIL in Syria, but proposed no specific alternative to his strategy. In 2015, McSally "would not give an opinion on whether the U.S. should send in ground troops" to Syria.

Government shutdown

In 2013, McSally refused to take a position on what her vote would have been on the compromise that ultimately ended the federal government shutdown. Stuart Rothenberg described her response to the question as doing "her best to bob and weave, clearly intent on not giving a 'yes' or a 'no.'"

Healthcare

McSally is in favor of repealing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Although McSally "has committed to repeal of the ACA, she has yet to put forward a plan for replacement, other than to say that the popular parts of the Affordable Care Act (such as protections for people with pre-existing conditions or allowing kids to stay on their parents' health insurance until they reach age 26) should be part of any replacement strategy and unpopular elements (such as the mandate to purchase health insurance) should be done away with." In January 2017, she voted for a Republican-sponsored budget resolution that begins the process of repealing the Act, although congressional Republicans had not released any replacement plan.

McSally supported the March 2017 version of the American Health Care Act, and voted on May 4, 2017, to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and pass a revised version of the American Health Care Act. Before voting on the bill, she declined to answer questions by reporters on where she stood, saying "I'm not publicly sharing my position". According to the Associated Press, McSally stood up at a GOP conference on the day of the vote and told her colleagues to get this "fucking thing" done. The version of the American Health Care Act that she voted for had not been scored by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office; the previous version of the bill was estimated to cause 24 million Americans becoming uninsured by 2026. The revised version of the bill allows states to ask for a waiver that would let insurers to charge individual with preexisting conditions more. McSally said of the bill, "This is not a perfect bill" but said it was better than the "failed system" of the Affordable Care Act.

Immigration

In 2014, McSally did not take a position as to what should be done with the U.S.-Mexico border. She did not take a position on the DREAM Act.

In December 2014, McSally criticized President Obama's executive actions on immigration (the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) program), saying that it was "absolutely inappropriate" of Obama to take these actions rather than "allowing the new Congress to sit and try to sort it out."

McSally has not taken a public position on Trump's executive order to suspend the entry of foreigners from seven Muslim-majority countries into the United States.

Abortion

McSally "opposes abortions in nearly all cases, with exceptions for rape, incest and the mother's health and life." During her 2014 campaign for Congress, McSally did not respond to a question from the Arizona Republic on whether she would vote for a bill backed by House Republicans to ban abortions after 20 weeks. In May 2015, however, McSally voted for the 20-week abortion ban, joining other Republicans in what was mostly a party-line vote.

LGBT rights

McSally opposes same-sex marriage. After the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which upheld a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, McSally said that she would "respect the Supreme Court's decision" but expressed the view that "this debate belongs at the state level."

She has declined to take a position on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would bar employers with more than 15 employees from engaging in employment discrimination on the basis of an "actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity." However, during her 2010 campaign, McSally indicated on a Center for Arizona Policy questionnaire that she opposes such additions to anti-discrimination law.

In May 2016, McSally voted for a bill that would have dismantled Obama's executive action that made it illegal for government contractors to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation. The Human Rights Campaign, a LGBT civil rights advocacy group, criticized her for her vote.

Women's rights

She appeared on national television in October 2012 saying, "You want to talk about a war on women? Walk in my shoes down the streets of Kabul. Walk in my shoes down the streets of Riyadh; where women have to be covered up. Where they're stoned, where they’re honor killed if they’ve been raped, where they can’t drive and they can’t travel without the permission of a male relative. That’s a war on women."

Personal life

McSally was married to Air Force officer Donald F. Henry from 1997 to 1999, before the marriage was annulled. McSally is a triathlete.