MJ Hegar

“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.”

“Most combat is not a hand-to-hand knife battle that the person who can do the most push-ups is going to end up winning.”

“I mean that I consider myself a feminist. I think anybody who thinks women and men should be treated equally is a feminist, whether or not they know it.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I do feel like I have set out a path of my life to never again be too small or too weak to protect the people I love.”

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

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