WASHINGTON -- A dragon winds around a cherry tree in the tattoo across MJ Hegar's arm and back, over the shrapnel wounds she hadn't wanted to see with her young children around.
But nine years after being shot down in Afghanistan, then winning a lawsuit against the federal government, writing a book and now running for a Texas congressional seat, Hegar isn't hiding much anymore.
"I carry my service with me wherever I go," Hegar said. "We don't see my family and my childhood and my service as different chapters. It's all a package deal."
Hegar is part of a crop of female veterans running for Congress in this year's midterm elections. Almost all Democrats and many of them mothers, they are shaped by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and overseas wars, including the longest war in American history. Many are retiring from the military and looking for another way to serve the country.
They're part of a record number of women running for seats in Congress, but in certain ways, they are a class apart.
The female veterans claim expertise in national security and veterans issues, with a track record of thriving in institutions dominated by men. Regardless of party, they cast themselves as the antidote to bitterly partisan politics: "mission-driven" and trained by the military to work toward a common goal.
"I flew 89 combat missions as a U.S. Marine. My 90th mission is running for Congress to take on politicians who put party over country," said Kentucky Democratic candidate Amy McGrath, the first female Marine to fly an F/A-18 in combat.
Two Democrats -- Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, a retired Marine Corps captain and Bronze Star recipient, and Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who lost her legs and partial use of an arm when her helicopter was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq -- have been instrumental in recruiting veterans to run for office.
"It's the year of the woman, but it's also the year of yearning for bringing integrity and honor back to politics," Moulton said. "We need Democrats with the credibility to tell people what's really going on."
Much of Hegar's story was already public by the time she decided to challenge Republican Rep. John Carter in the Austin-area district, so she went for the full reveal -- tattoos and all.
Her video, "Doors," features the door of the helicopter in which she was shot down on her third tour of Afghanistan as a combat search-and-rescue pilot. Her medals, including a Purple Heart, play a role, as does Hegar's 2012 lawsuit against the federal government that forced it to repeal the ban on women in combat.
Air Force veteran Gina Ortiz Jones, a Democratic nominee for Congress, hopes her active military duty and intelligence work will "neutralize this perceived strength" of Republicans as strong on security issues.
That could be important in the race for the San Antonio-area seat held by Republican Rep. Will Hurd, a former CIA operative. Ortiz Jones supports Medicare for all and single-payer health insurance, positions that could be considered too liberal for the district.
"'Liberal' isn't a word that is normally used to describe my work in national security," she said.
A Section on 08/18/2018