In an era when social media gaffes and ill-advised PR stunts can make or break a political campaign, it’s certainly refreshing to see an ad go viral for all the right reasons. MJ Hager, a US Air Force veteran and resident of Round Rock, Texas who is running for Congress in the midterm elections in November, has managed just that with her latest powerful video, which has so far been shared over 10,000 times from her official campaign account.
Titled ‘Doors,’ the three and a half minute clip explains just why Hager has chosen to take on Republican congressman John Carter in the Republican heartland of Texas. It starts off a little like the opening of a Nineties sit-com, with Hegar’s voiceover telling us that ‘this is a story about doors, a lot of them,’ before introducing her as an Air Force combat veteran and a mom, sat at the dinner table with her young family. But behind her is a helicopter door, a reminder of her tours in Afghanistan, and it soon becomes clear that MJ has an important story to tell.
We soon learn about the air crash that sadly curtailed Hager’s military career, and that the door she keeps in her house was taken from that wreckage. It’s clear that as a woman working in the military, doors metaphorical and physical have defined her career: indeed, she tells us that, growing up in a single parent family, pursuing her dream of working as a pilot meant ‘opening, pushing and sometimes kicking through every door.’ When the plane crash meant she couldn’t fly any more, she claims she was ‘barred’ from her next career move because of her gender.
Watch MJ Hegar's campaign video below...
Not one to sit back and let that happen, she sued the Pentagon over the ban on women serving in ground combat jobs in the US military – and she won, opening, as she says, ‘the door for hundreds of thousands of women to compete for elite ground combat jobs.’ Before this success, however, Hager found it difficult to secure meetings with members of Congress to discuss her case: when she asked to talk with her congressman, John Carter, a member of the Tea Party (a hyper-conservative faction of the Republican party), she found the door was closed because she was not a party donor. As she puts it, ‘being his constituent and a veteran wasn’t enough to get a meeting.’ Now, she’s going up against him as a Democratic candidate in a so-called deep red state, to take on ‘a system that cares more about campaign donors and political parties than protecting our country.'
Though winning a seat as a Democrat in a traditionally conservative state certainly won’t be easy, Hager’s video has rightly been praised on social media: for her inspiring story and career, and for her positive message in a time when US politics seemed mired in talk of North Korea and Trump’s immigration policy. But can viral fame translate into success at the polls? Local pundits have already noted that Texas 31, Hegar’s constituency, has now swayed from a ‘Solid R’ rating to a ‘Likely R’ rating, a small step in her favour. We’ll have to wait until November to find out, of course, but until then, we’ll be watching her video for proof that one woman can definitely make a difference.
Find out more about MJ Hager's campaign at www.mjfortexas.com.
NOW READ: 31 Inspirational Quotes That Will Make You Proud To Be A Woman
Inspirational quotes IWD
1 of 31Eleanor Roosevelt
'A woman is like a tea bag - you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.'
2 of 31Maya Angelou
'I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass.'
3 of 31Amy Poehler
'I just love bossy women. I could be around them all day. To me, bossy is not a pejorative term at all. It means somebody's passionate and engaged and ambitious and doesn't mind learning.'
4 of 31Melinda Gates
'A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult.'
5 of 31Beyoncé
'We need to reshape our own perception of how we view ourselves. We have to step up as women and take the lead.'
6 of 31Audrey Hepburn
'Nothing is impossible. The word itself says, "I'm possible!"'
7 of 31Emma Watson
'I feel like young girls are told that they have to be a princess and fragile. It's bullsh*t. I identify much more with being a warrior –a fighter.'
8 of 31Lady Gaga
'A feminist to me is somebody that wishes to protect the integrity of women who are ambitious. A feminist in my opinion is somebody that regards that women have a strong intelligence and wisdom. That we are just as great as men — and some of us can be even better.'
9 of 31Sarah Silverman
'We need to stop telling girls they can be anything they want when they grow up. Because it would have never occurred to them that they couldn't.'
10 of 31Oprah Winfrey
'Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.'
11 of 31Hillary Clinton
'Human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights. Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely – and the right to be heard.'
12 of 31Zendaya
'A feminist is a person who believes in the power of women just as much as they believe in the power of anyone else. It's equality, it's fairness, and I think it's a great thing to be a part of.'
13 of 31Tina Fey
'Know what? B*tches get stuff done.'
14 of 31Angelina Jolie
'Figure out who you are separate from your family, and the man or woman you're in a relationship with. Find who you are in this world and what you need to feel good alone. I think that's the most important thing in life. Find a sense of self. With that, you can do anything else.'
15 of 31Sheryl Sandberg
'I'm a feminist because I believe in women […] It's a heavy word, feminism, but it's not one I think we should run from. I'm proud to be a feminist.'
16 of 31Diana Vreeland
'You don't have to be pretty. You don't owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend, not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street. You don't owe it to your mother, you don't owe it to you children, you don't owe it to civilization in general. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked "female".'
17 of 31Michelle Obama
'There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish, whether that's in politics or other fields.'
18 of 31Virginia Woolf
'As a woman I have no country. As a woman I want no country. As a woman my country is the whole world.'
19 of 31Taylor Swift
'My hope for the future, not just in the music industry, but in every young girl I meet, is that they all realise their worth and ask for it.'
20 of 31Zooey Deschanel
'I'm a feminist because I'm a woman, and I think that if you're a strong woman who wants to succeed, you have to be a feminist.'
21 of 31Coco Chanel
'The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.'
22 of 31Charlotte Bronte
'If men could see us as we really are, they would be a little amazed.'
23 of 31Gloria Steinem
'A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men.'
24 of 31Lupita Nyong'o
'I hope that my presence on your screen and my face in magazines may lead you, young girls, on a beautiful journey. That you will feel the validation of your external beauty, but also get to the deeper business of being beautiful inside.'
25 of 31Rebecca West
'I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.'
26 of 31Meryl Streep
'Don't waste so much time thinking about how much you weigh. There is no more mind-numbing, boring, idiotic, self-destructive diversion from the fun of living.'
27 of 31Reese Witherspoon
'Like Elle Woods, I do not like to be underestimated.'
28 of 31Diana Ross
'Instead of looking at the past, I put myself ahead twenty years and try to look at what I need to do now in order to get there then.'
29 of 31Anne Hathaway
'A man told me that for a woman, I was very opinionated. I said, "For a man, you're kind of ignorant."'
30 of 31Nora Ephron
'Whatever you choose, however many roads you travel, I hope that you choose not to be a lady. I hope you will find some way to break the rules and make a little trouble out there. And I also hope that you will choose to make some of that trouble on behalf of women.'
31 of 31Malala Yousafzai
'I raise up my voice – not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard.'