John McCain
U.S. Senator
Republican, Arizona
- Date of Birth: August 29, 1936
- Birthplace: Coco Solo Naval Reservation, United States
- First Elected: 1986
Committee Assignments:
Senate Committee on Armed Services, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Senate Committee on Indian AffairsJohn McCain, a two-time presidential candidate and the senior senator from Arizona, was born in the Panama Canal Zone to a well-known military family. Both his father and grandfather were decorated admirals. McCain grew up in Northern Virginia and graduated, near the bottom of the class, from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland in 1958. He volunteered to serve as a fighter pilot in Vietnam, where he performed 23 bombing missions. On what would be his last mission in 1967, a missile hit McCain’s aircraft over Hanoi. He ejected from the plane, breaking both arms and his leg. He parachuted into a lake, where North Vietnamese picked him and held him as a prisoner of war. He was imprisoned for five and a half years, two of which were in solitary confinement. He was freed in 1973. For his service, he has received many awards, including the Silver Star and Purple Heart. He was appointed the Navy’s liaison to the Senate in 1977 and began to take a keen interest in politics. He was elected to the U.S. House in 1981, where he served two terms before winning the seat of retiring Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater in 1986. Known in the Senate as a “maverick,” McCain has wide ranging political expertise and, though he tends to vote with his party, he’s crossed the aisle several times to create legislation with his Democratic colleagues. The focus of his Senate career, and of his two presidential campaigns, has been on eliminating federal budget earmarks and wasteful spending. McCain and Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin worked together for several years to create the McCain-Feingold Act, which passed in 2002, to crack down on campaign finance abuses. The Supreme Court in 2010 struck down provisions of this law. McCain has also been active on immigration reform, a subject on which critics say he has been inconsistent. In 2005, McCain and the late Sen. Ted Kennedy sponsored a bill to help immigrants become legal, but this year he supported his state’s controversial immigration law crackdown that requires police to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws if there’s a reasonable suspicion the person is in the United States illegally. McCain, 73, has seven children and four grandchildren. He and his wife, Cindy, live in Phoenix.
Campaign Fundraising
2005 - Present| Top 5 Organizations | PACs | Individuals | Total |
| Pinnacle West Capital | $10,000 | $29,100 | $39,100 |
| Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold | $10,000 | $22,050 | $32,050 |
| NewsMax Media | $0 | $29,800 | $29,800 |
| Emerson | $10,000 | $19,500 | $29,500 |
| Cisco Systems | $6,000 | $23,000 | $29,000 |
| Top 5 Industries | PACs | Individuals | Total |
| Retired | $0 | $950,447 | $950,447 |
| Lawyers & Law Firms | $76,750 | $182,523 | $259,273 |
| Real Estate | $30,000 | $218,130 | $248,130 |
| Securities & Investment | $12,000 | $235,481 | $247,481 |
| Republican/Conservative | $23,294 | $185,477 | $208,771 |
John McCain in the News
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Mitt Romney Released 23 Years of Tax Returns
February 01, 2012
Romney releases two years of financial info to voters, 23 years to McCain. -
Galupo: Mitt Romney Isn't Too Perfect—He's Too Phony
February 01, 2012
When trying to figure out why people despise Mitt Romney, Kathleen Parker gets it wrong. - The angry mob It was a moment of real leadership that reminded people why McCain is an American hero. It came after weeks of escalating extremist rhetoric against our country's first African-American nominee for president (and his family) in which death threats increased to a…
- Walberg: If Mitt Romney had been the Republican presidential nominee in 2008, Walberg wouldn't have lost his seat in 2008 But in a story posted Sunday on Politico he said if Mitt Romney was the Republican nominee in 2008 instead of John McCain "I'd be in my third term now instead of my second term." Walberg, who attended a Republican…
- Mitt Romney Gets 51 Percent in Michigan Straw Poll Mitt Romney didn't disappoint on his home turf this weekend, receiving 51 percent of the votes at the Michigan Straw Poll, a wide victory over Texas Gov. Rick Perry who garnered just 17 percent. Third place in the straw poll…
