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.

MJ Hegar

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.

MJ Hegar

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.

MJ Hegar

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

MJ Hegar

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.

MJ Hegar

I think of myself as a bit of a mother bear, and if anybody poses a threat to my kids they'll see both my mother's heart and my warrior spirit. I think that they're compatible.

MJ Hegar

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.

MJ Hegar

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.

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.

MJ Hegar

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.

MJ Hegar

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

MJ Hegar

I had medevacked so many women off the battlefield that I knew that it was a misnomer to say that women weren't in combat. I had friends that were Marines that were taken to fight the enemy. They weren't just firing in defense of their position.

MJ Hegar

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.

MJ Hegar

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.

MJ Hegar

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.

MJ Hegar

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?

MJ Hegar

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.

MJ Hegar

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.

MJ Hegar

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.

MJ Hegar

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.

MJ Hegar

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.

MJ Hegar