Mary Jennings Hegar is an American United States Air Force veteran and former political candidate.
23 Facts About MJ Hegar
2.
In July 2017, MJ Hegar announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for United States House of Representatives to Texas's 31st congressional district.
3.
MJ Hegar was the Democratic nominee in the 2020 United States Senate election in Texas, losing to incumbent Republican John Cornyn by ten percentage points.
4.
When MJ Hegar was seven years old, her mother, Grace, moved her and her sister from Fairfield, Connecticut, to Cedar Park, Texas.
5.
MJ Hegar grew up in Cedar Park, where her mother remarried a Vietnam veteran, David Jennings, when she was ten.
6.
MJ Hegar was her high school class president, on the cheer squad, and played various sports, including soccer.
7.
In 1999, MJ Hegar received a BA from the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied criminology, sociology, philosophy, and world religions.
8.
In December 1999, MJ Hegar was commissioned into the US Air Force through ROTC at the University of Texas.
9.
At Whiteman, MJ Hegar worked on the F-16 Fighting Falcon and the B-2 Stealth Bomber.
10.
MJ Hegar received shrapnel wounds in her arm and leg from Taliban ground fire, but her helicopter was able to rescue the soldiers it had been sent to help.
11.
MJ Hegar was one of the few women to receive this medal after Amelia Earhart.
12.
In 2010, MJ Hegar relocated to Austin and worked as a program manager at Seton Healthcare Family until 2015.
13.
MJ Hegar has taught at the University of Texas at Austin's McCombs School of Business and in the ROTC and women's studies departments.
14.
MJ Hegar has mentored cadets at UT and has served on the AFROTC Advisory Committee.
15.
On July 6,2017, MJ Hegar announced that she would run for the Democratic nomination for US Representative in Texas's 31st congressional district.
16.
MJ Hegar's campaign received the endorsement of former president Barack Obama on September 25,2020.
17.
MJ Hegar's campaign focused on her support for the Affordable Care Act, protecting individuals with preexisting conditions, and creating a public health insurance option.
18.
Shortly after the 2009 mission in which MJ Hegar was wounded in Afghanistan, she was medically disqualified from flying.
19.
MJ Hegar was barred from cross-training for a ground combat position despite her expertise as a pilot, which had it not been for her gender would have been a next step.
20.
In 2012, MJ Hegar was the lead plaintiff alongside former US Marine Corps Captain Zoe Bedell, US Marine Corps First Lieutenant Colleen Farrell, US Army Reserves Staff Sergeant Jennifer Hunt, and the Service Women's Action Network in a lawsuit against US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta asserting that the Combat Exclusion Policy was unconstitutional.
21.
MJ Hegar said the suit was about military effectiveness and would give military commanders a larger pool of applicants.
22.
In 2011, MJ Hegar married Brandon MJ Hegar, whom she knew from high school.
23.
MJ Hegar has two sons as well as stepchildren from her husband's previous marriage.