Ex-pitcher Curt Schilling considers congressional run in Arizona
Aug 12, 2019, 5:35 PM | Updated: Sep 18, 2019, 11:14 am
(Photo by Jennifer Stewart/Getty Images)
Former major league pitcher Curt Schilling, who’s never been shy about expressing his conservative beliefs, said he’s thinking about running for Congress in Arizona, where he won a World Series ring with the Diamondbacks in 2001.
“I’m considering going back to Arizona and running for a congressional seat, one of the blue ones,” Schilling, who was the World Series co-MVP along with Randy Johnson when the Diamondbacks won their only world championship, told Armed American Radio on Sunday.
Host Mark Waters was discussing the 2nd Congressional District, a southern Arizona seat held by Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, when Schilling brought up the possibility of running.
Schilling, who has long been outspoken about his conservative views, didn’t specifically say he would target Kirkpatrick.
He already has been supporting Brandon Martin, a Republican candidate in Kirkpatrick’s district.
We want our country back. Don’t care about color, race, sexual preferences or pronouns, just care you are a law abiding AMERICAN. To that end PLEASE HELP ME get @PathForFreedom elected!!!! He’s on the border! Can flip blue to red!! Needs $$$! Give you my word he can be trusted!
— Curt Schilling (@gehrig38) August 10, 2019
Schilling previously considered a 2018 run against Sen. Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts, but he told Waters he decided against putting his family through a campaign at that time.
But he said he’s been talking about a run in Arizona with his wife, “and she’s now becoming more and more comfortable.”
“We’re still quite a few discussions away, but, yeah, it’s something that we’re absolutely considering,” he continued.
Schilling, who went to Shadow Mountain High School in Phoenix, pitched in parts of four seasons for the Diamondbacks and formed a formidable starting duo alongside Johnson.
He went on to win two more championships as a member of the Boston Red Sox and is considered one of the top postseason pitchers of all time.
In 2016, the six-time All-Star was fired from his gig as a baseball analyst with ESPN after sharing a meme about transgender bathroom policies that the network considered offensive and unacceptable. He went on to work for the conservative Breitbart News.
In 2018 he attended a Diamondbacks game in Phoenix wearing a shirt supporting President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.
The president apparently is a fan of Schilling, too. Before this year’s Hall of Fame voting, Trump tweeted that Schilling deserved to be inducted.
Curt Schilling deserves to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Great record, especially when under pressure and when it mattered most. Do what everyone in Baseball knows is right! @marklevinshow
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 21, 2019