Martha McSally

Education

In 2012, McSally said she "wants the federal government out of the education business."

Retirement

After retiring from the U.S. Air Force on May 6, 2010, she worked as a professor at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

McSally was married to Air Force officer Donald Frederick Henry from 1997 to 1999, when the marriage was annulled.

In April 2018, a Tucson man was sentenced to 15 months in prison for threatening to assault and kill McSally.

Also in 2018, McSally said while she was in high school she had been sexually abused.

In 2019, during a congressional hearing, McSally said she was raped by a superior officer while she was in the Air Force, but that she had not reported it.

In November 2023, McSally said she was sexually assaulted on Wednesday the 8th of that month while she was out running in Council Bluffs, Iowa. She said she was groped against her will and reported it to the police. Two days later, Dominic Henton was arrested for this; he was charged with one count of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse.

McSally is a triathlete.

McSally's rescue dog, a Golden Retriever, Boomer, often appears alongside her at events and in videos.

McSally is Protestant.

Budget and taxes

McSally voted in favor of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. She discounted polls showing the bill as unpopular among voters, calling it "hysteria" and "misinformation" and saying that "the best counter to that is when people see money in their paychecks."

Donald Trump

As of April 2020, McSally has voted with President Trump about 95% of the time. In 2016, she did not endorse Trump in the presidential election and did not take a position on whether voters in her district should vote for him. She called Trump's comments in the Access Hollywood tape "disgusting" and "unacceptable". McSally recast herself as a Trump ally and reliable Republican vote in her 2018 campaign for the U.S. Senate.

In February 2017, McSally voted with her party 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.

In December 2019, amid the impeachment inquiry into President Trump over his alleged attempts to get the President of Ukraine to announce an investigation into Joe Biden and his son, McSally said she had not been convinced that Trump should be impeached. In 2020, during Trump's Senate impeachment trial, she voted against allowing additional witnesses and documents and voted to acquit Trump of all charges.

Drug policy

McSally opposes legalizing both recreational and medical cannabis.

Economic policy

McSally opposes the Raise the Wage Act, which would gradually raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

In March 2020, McSally became a cosponsor of legislation to repeal the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, which requires paying laborers and mechanics the local prevailing wages for public works projects.

Energy and environment

McSally did not take a position on Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accord. As of 2019, she had a lifetime score of 6% from the League of Conservation Voters.

In 2015, McSally co-sponsored the Mexican Wolf Transparency Act, a bill that would delist the Mexican wolf as an endangered species and halt a United States Fish and Wildlife Service recovery program that aims to reintroduce the wolf to areas in Arizona.

McSally supported the Apache Solar Project in 2016. In October 2017, once construction was completed, she gave the keynote address at its dedication, calling it a "great example of member-driven co-ops, from the bottom up, figuring out ways to provide reliable power to the community, instead of top-down bureaucrats telling them what to do." She called the project a "case study" for the rest of the country in that other communities could learn how to provide customers with "low-cost, competitive renewable power."

Foreign and defense policy

Politico called McSally's foreign policy "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., one of Arizona's largest employers. She has been an ardent opponent of the retirement of the A-10 "Warthog", a warplane that 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. She supports the indefinite detentions at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and opposed President Obama's efforts to close the camp.

In 2015, McSally said the air strikes taking place against ISIL were not effective but did not give an opinion on whether the U.S. should send ground troops into Iraq and Syria.

In July 2018, McSally issued a statement touting Trump's actions to prevent "Russian aggression": she listed sanctions, the expulsion of diplomats, and working with NATO as some of them. At the same time, she posited Trump's words were not as strong as his actions. In January 2019, McSally was one of 11 Republican senators to vote to advance legislation intended to prevent President Trump from lifting sanctions against three Russian companies.

In October 2019, McSally was one of six senators to sign a bipartisan letter to Trump calling on him to "urge Turkey to end their offensive and find a way to a peaceful resolution while supporting our Kurdish partners to ensure regional stability" and arguing that to leave Syria without installing protections for American allies would endanger both them and the US.

McSally has expressed concern about Chinese involvement in the United States, saying that Americans "are being played by the Chinese Communist Party."

Gun policy

In 2012, when asked about her position on the "gun show loophole", McSally said she opposed limits on gun sales as unconstitutional.

In 2019, the Arizona Mirror wrote that McSally "has suggested some willingness to consider gun control measures, an apparent shift from her previous stance on the topic." McSally said she was considering "specific legislative efforts to prevent gun violence, like red flag laws, assault weapons bans and stricter background checks".

As of 2019, McSally had received $372,615 from gun rights groups, the fifth most of any federal lawmaker since 1989.

Immigration

Once a supporter of immigration reform, McSally has embraced a hard-line conservative position on immigration since Trump's election.

In December 2014, McSally criticized 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". In January 2015, McSally was one of 26 Republicans who voted against an amendment to a spending bill that would end DACA. She said it would be unfair to deport undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. In September 2017, McSally was one of 10 Republicans who sent a letter to Speaker Paul Ryan asking for a legislative solution for those under DACA status. While criticizing Obama's action in creating the program, the letter said, "It would be wrong to go back on our word and subject these individuals to deportation". In May 2018, while facing a primary challenge from the right, McSally pulled her support and cosponsorship of a DACA bill that she had sponsored since April 2017. Instead, she expressed support for a more conservative bill that would cut legal immigration, dramatically increase spending on border security, and provide indefinite stay for DREAMers but not give them a path to citizenship. In June 2018, CNN reported that the McSally campaign had removed a video from her website in which she praised DACA. According to The Arizona Republic, McSally sought through these actions during the primary "to downplay and hide" her past support for DACA.

In January 2017, after Trump issued an executive order suspending the entry of foreigners from seven Muslim-majority countries into the United States, McSally issued a statement saying the U.S. should look at "gaps in our vetting processes" but that she had "concerns about certain individuals being denied entry".

McSally did not fault the Trump administration for the family separation policy but indicated that she preferred a different outcome than separating immigrant children from their parents. McSally instead criticized Congress for the family separation policy that the Trump administration implemented. In response to the Keep Families Together Act, which would have blocked the policy, she falsely claimed that the bill, backed by her Senate opponent Kyrsten Sinema, was "essentially encouraging child trafficking". When the Trump administration backtracked on the family separation policy, McSally said it was "welcome news".

In 2019, McSally voted against a resolution to reject Trump's use of an emergency declaration to build a border wall.

Internet and technology

McSally opposes net neutrality and signed a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in December 2017 urging him to repeal the Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet Order.

In March 2017, McSally and then-Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn co-sponsored the Broadband Consumer Privacy Proposal, which repealed the FCC's internet privacy rules and allowed internet service providers to sell customers' browsing history without their permission.

LGBTQ rights

McSally opposes same-sex marriage and in 2018 said "philosophically, I believe marriage is between one man and one woman, and it should be left to the states". After the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which upheld a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, McSally said 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". 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 the Obama administration's executive action that made it illegal for government contractors to discriminate against people based on sexual orientation.

Social Security

McSally supports privatizing Social Security and raising the retirement age. She has described the existing system as "currently unsustainable".

Sexual assault

On March 6, 2019, during a hearing on Sexual Assault and Misconduct in the Military at the Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, McSally informed her colleagues that she had been raped by a superior officer while serving in the Air Force:

I also am a military sexual assault survivor, but unlike so many brave survivors, I didn't report being sexually assaulted. Like so many women and men, I didn't trust the system at the time. I blamed myself. I was ashamed and confused. I thought I was strong but felt powerless. The perpetrators abused their position of power in profound ways. In one case I was preyed upon and raped by a superior officer.

McSally did not name the officer who raped her. She expressed disgust at the failures of the military system and many commanders to address sexual violence.

On November 10, 2023, McSally claimed that she had been sexually assaulted while jogging alongside the Missouri River in Iowa, but she had fought and chased off her assailant. Subsequently, the suspect was detained on allegations of assault. McSally chased the man into the Tom Hanafan River’s Edge Park before calling the police.