Cindy Hensley McCain
Encyclopedia
Cindy Lou Hensley McCain (born May 20, 1954) is an American businesswoman
, and philanthropist
, and the wife of United States Senator and 2000 and 2008 presidential candidate John McCain
of Arizona
.
She was born and raised in Phoenix
, Arizona
, as the daughter of wealthy beer distributor Jim Hensley
. After receiving bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Southern California
, she became a special education
teacher. She married John McCain in 1980 and they had three children together, in addition to adopting another. From 1988 to 1995, she founded and operated a nonprofit organization, the American Voluntary Medical Team, which organized trips by medical personnel to disaster-stricken or war-torn third-world areas. During this time, she became addicted to painkillers for several years and resorted to having a physician write her illegal prescriptions. She reached an agreement with the government in which no charges were filed against her.
Upon her father's death in 2000, she inherited majority control and became chair
of Hensley & Co.
, one of the largest Anheuser-Busch
beer distributors in the United States. She participated in both of her husband's presidential campaigns and, in 2008, drew both positive and negative scrutiny for her appearance, demeanor, wealth, spending habits, and financial obligations. She continues to be an active philanthropist and serves on the boards of Operation Smile
, CARE
and HALO Trust
, frequently making overseas trips in conjunction with their activities.
, Arizona
, to James Hensley
, who founded Hensley & Co.
, and Marguerite "Smitty" Hensley (née Johnson). She was raised as the only child of her parents' second marriages and grew up on Phoenix's North Central Avenue
in affluent circumstances. (Dixie L. Burd, who is the daughter of Marguerite Smith through a prior relationship, is her half-sister, as is Kathleen Hensely Portalski, daughter of Jim Hensley and his first wife, Mary Jeanne Parks.) Cindy Hensley was named Junior Rodeo Queen of Arizona
in 1968. She went to Central High School
in Phoenix, where she was named Best Dressed as a senior and graduated in 1972.
Hensley enrolled at the University of Southern California
. She joined the socially conservative Kappa Alpha Theta
sorority as a freshman, and had many leadership roles in the house during her four years there. Hensley graduated with a Bachelor of Arts
in education
in 1976. She continued on at USC, and received a Master of Arts
in special education
in 1978. There she participated in a movement therapy
pilot program that laid the way for a standard treatment for children with severe disabilities; she published the work Movement Therapy: A Possible Approach in 1978. Declining a role in the family business, she worked for a year as a special education teacher dealing with children with Down syndrome
and other disabilities at Agua Fria High School
in Avondale, Arizona
.
Hensley met John McCain
in April 1979 at a military reception in Hawaii
. He was the U.S. Navy liaison officer to the United States Senate
and almost eighteen years her senior. McCain and Hensley quickly began a relationship, traveling between Arizona and Washington to see each other. John McCain then pushed to end his marriage of fourteen years; Carol McCain
and John McCain stopped cohabiting in January 1980, and Carol accepted a divorce in February 1980, effective in April 1980. John and Cindy were married on May 17, 1980 at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel
in Phoenix. They signed a prenuptial agreement
that kept most of her family's assets under her name; they have since kept their finances apart and file separate income tax returns
.
Her father's business and political contacts helped John McCain to gain a foothold in Arizona politics. She campaigned with her husband door to door during his successful first bid for U.S. Congress in 1982, and was heavily involved in campaign strategy. Her wealth from an expired trust
from her parents provided significant loans to the campaign and helped it survive a period of early debt.
Once John McCain was elected, the couple moved to Alexandria, Virginia
. She spent two months in late 1983 writing handwritten notes on over 4,000 Christmas cards to be sent to constituents and others. She was considered an outsider who was snubbed by the Washington congressional social scene, in part because Carol McCain was a popular figure in town, and she grew homesick for Arizona. She had several miscarriage
s.
She moved back to Arizona in early 1984 and gave birth to the couple's daughter, Meghan
, later that year. She subsequently gave birth to sons John Sidney IV (known as "Jack") in 1986 and James (known as "Jimmy") in 1988. Their fourth child, Bridget, was adopted in 1991. Cindy McCain's parents lived across the street and helped her raise the children; her husband was frequently in Washington and she typically only saw him on weekends. In his absence, she organized elaborate fund-raisers for him and expanded their home.
In April 1986, Cindy and her father invested $359,100 in a shopping center project with Phoenix banker Charles Keating
. This, combined with her role as a bookkeeper who later had difficulty finding receipts for family trips on Keating's jet, caused complications for her husband during the Keating Five
scandal, when he was being examined for his role regarding oversight of Keating's bank.
, Cindy McCain founded the American Voluntary Medical Team (AVMT). It was a non-profit organization
that organized trips for doctors, nurses and other medical personnel to provide MASH
-like emergency medical care to disaster-struck or war-torn third-world areas such as Micronesia
, Vietnam
(before relations were normalized between them and the U.S.), Kuwait
(arriving five days after the conclusion of the Gulf War
), Zaire
(to help refuges from the Rwandan genocide
), Iraq
, Nicaragua
, India
, Bangladesh
and El Salvador
. She led 55 of these missions over the next seven years, each of which were at least two weeks in duration. AVMT also supplied treatment to poor sick children around the world. In 1993, Cindy McCain and the AVMT were honored with an award from Food for the Hungry
.
. While at Mother Teresa
's Dhaka orphanage
, the Sisters of Charity of Mother Teresa Children's Home, McCain met two infant girls she felt needed to be brought to the United States for medical treatment. She decided to adopt one of the girls, later named Bridget, with her husband readily agreeing; the adoption became final in 1993. She helped coordinate the adoption of the other little girl, named Mickey, for family friend Wes Gullett.
and Vicodin
, opioid
painkillers, which she initially took to alleviate pain
following two spinal surgeries for ruptured discs
and to ease emotional stress during the Keating Five affair
. The addiction progressed to where she was taking upwards of twenty pills a day, and she resorted to having an AVMT physician write illegal prescriptions in the names of three AVMT employees without their knowledge. In 1992, her parents staged an intervention
to force her to get help; she told her husband about her problem, attended a drug treatment facility, began outpatient sessions and ended her three years of addiction. Surgery in 1993 resolved her back pain.
In January 1993, Tom Gosinski, an AVMT employee who had discovered her illegal drug use, was terminated on budgetary grounds. Subsequently, he tipped off the Drug Enforcement Administration
about her prior actions and a federal investigation ensued. McCain's defense team, led by John McCain's Keating Five lawyer John Dowd
, secured an agreement with the U.S. Attorney's office for McCain, a first-time offender, which avoided charges while requiring her to pay financial restitution, enroll in a diversion program
and do community service
. Meanwhile, in early 1994, Gosinski filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against McCain, in which he alleged she ordered him to conceal "improper acts" and "misrepresent facts in a judicial proceeding"; he told her he would settle for $250,000. In response, Dowd characterized this request as blackmail, and requested Maricopa County attorney Rick Romley to investigate Gosinski for extortion
. In the end, Gosinski's credibility was undermined by testimony in Romley's report from other charity staffers who asserted Gosinski privately vowed to blackmail McCain were he ever fired, and both Gosinski's lawsuit and the extortion investigation against him were dropped.
Knowing that prosecutors were about to publicly disclose her past addiction, McCain preemptively revealed the story to reporters, saying that she was doing so willingly: "Although my conduct did not result in compromising any missions of AVMT, my actions were wrong, and I regret them ... if what I say can help just one person to face the problem, it's worthwhile."
. She mostly provided good cheer, without discussing her opinions about national policy. She impressed Republican voters with her elegance at coffee shops and other small campaign settings, where she frequently referred to her children, carpooling and charity work.
McCain was upset by the notorious smear tactics against her husband in the South Carolina primary
that year. These included allegations involving her adopted daughter Bridget that she found "despicable", as well as insinuations that McCain herself was currently a drug addict. Though deeply wounded by the attacks for a long time, Cindy McCain eventually forgave those responsible. She was chosen as the chair of the Arizona delegation to the 2000 Republican National Convention
.
In 2000, she became chair
of the now $300 million-a-year Hensley & Co.
following her father's death. It is one of the largest Anheuser-Busch
beer distributors in the United States. She, her children, and one of John McCain's children from his first marriage, together own 68 percent of the company. As chair, her role takes the form of consultations with the company CEO on major initiatives such as new products, new plants or employee welfare, rather than that of an active physical presence. She does not have operational control of Hensley, and Anheuser-Busch considers her to be an absentee owner. By 2007, she had an annual income of over $400,000 from Hensley and an estimated net worth of $100 million. She also owned at least $2.7 million worth of shares of Anheuser-Busch stock. With her children, she owns a minority stake in the Arizona Diamondbacks
baseball team.
McCain became actively involved with Operation Smile
in 2001, taking parts in its medical missions to Morocco
, Vietnam and India. She was honored by the organization in 2005 and sits on its board of directors
.
McCain joined the board of directors of CARE
in 2005. She is on the board of the HALO Trust
, and has visited operations to remove landmines in Cambodia
, Sri Lanka
, Mozambique
, and Angola
. She makes financial contributions to these organizations via her family trust and views her role as watching them in the field to ensure they are frugal and their money is being spent effectively. On occasion she has criticized foreign regimes on human rights
grounds, such as Myanmar's military junta.
In April 2004, McCain suffered a near-fatal stroke
caused by high blood pressure, although she was still able to attend some events. After several months of physical therapy to overcome leg and arm limitations, she made a mostly full recovery, although she still suffered from some short-term memory
loss and difficulties in writing. She owns a home in Coronado, California
, next to the Hotel del Coronado
; her family had vacationed in Coronado growing up, and she has gone there for recuperation and family get-togethers. She or her family own other residential and commercial real estate in California, Arizona and Virginia and, including rental properties, McCain herself owns ten homes and part of three office complexes. She is an amateur pilot and race car driver.
She was active and visible in her husband's second presidential campaign during 2007 and 2008
, despite not wanting her husband to run initially due to bad memories of their 2000 experience and worries the effect on her children, especially son Jimmy who was headed to serve in the Iraq War. She eventually supported her husband in his goals, but defined her own campaign roles; she frequently returned to Arizona to attend to domestic duties or interrupted campaigning for her overseas charitable work. She preferred to travel with her husband and introduce him rather than act as a campaign surrogate with a separate schedule. She wore her hair in a fashionable but severe style and was sometimes seen with an unsmiling countenance in her appearances. In August 2008, a member of the public shook her hand very vigorously, aggravating her existing carpal tunnel syndrome
condition and causing her to slightly sprain her wrist. The campaign exacerbated her migraine headaches and she sometimes had to wear dark glasses to shield herself from bright lights. The pressures of the campaign also brought out a range of behaviors between her and her husband, varying from moments of great tenderness and concern to raging arguments that dismayed their staffs.
McCain stated that the American public wanted a First Lady of the United States
who would tend toward a traditional role in that position. She would not attend Cabinet
meetings, but would continue her involvement in overseas non-profit organizations and would urge Americans to do the same globally or locally. She envisioned herself as a possible figurehead for humanitarian work, along the lines of Diana, Princess of Wales
. She continued to expand her roles in such organizations, joining in April 2008 the board of Grateful Nation Montana, which provides scholarships and services to the children of Montana service personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
She made statements critical of the Bush administration
for not deploying enough troops during the Iraq War. Her close examination of the financial books of the McCain campaign during the first part of 2007 convinced the candidate that its profligate spending could not go on and led to the drastic mid-year reduction of the campaign's staff and scope. In February 2008, McCain made news by being critical of Michelle Obama
, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama
, who had said, "And let me tell you something: For the first time in my adult lifetime I am really proud of my country." McCain, who was genuinely offended by the remark, replied: "I am proud of my country. I don't know about you—if you heard those words earlier—I am very proud of my country." Also in February 2008, she publicly appeared beside her husband during a press conference in response to a newspaper report regarding his connection to a lobbyist.
McCain faced media scrutiny about her wealth, spending habits, and financial obligations. At first declining to release her separate income tax returns, saying it was a privacy issue and that she would not do so even if she became First Lady, she later released the first two pages of her 2006 return, which showed $6 million in income for that year (including nearly $570,000 in itemized deduction
s and more than $1.7 million paid in federal income taxes). The campaign said that any decisions about how to handle her role in Hensley & Co. if she became First Lady would not be made until that time. While she stood to gain a considerable profit from the agreed-upon acquisition of Anheuser-Busch by the Belgian
company InBev
, she was initially under some political pressure to help oppose the deal and keep Anheuser-Busch under American ownership.
In June 2008, a Rasmussen Reports
poll found that 49 percent of voters viewed Cindy McCain favorably and 29 percent unfavorably, while an ABC News
/Washington Post poll found figures of 39 percent and 25 percent respectively. Her style and fashion sense was the subject of much media scrutiny. McCain was compared to former first lady Nancy Reagan
, due to both her style and wardrobe as well as her demeanor. Early in the campaign, some recipe
s attributed to Cindy McCain turned out to be copied from other sources; the campaign attributed the problem to an error by an intern.
Cindy McCain spoke on both the opening and final nights of the early September 2008 Republican National Convention
. On the first night, truncated due to national attention regarding Hurricane Gustav
, she appeared with First Lady Laura Bush
to deliver short remarks encouraging support for hurricane relief efforts along the Gulf Coast, and on the last night, she introduced the seven McCain children and spoke about how her husband's love for his country had been passed on to them. In October 2008, she increased the intensity of her public remarks against Obama's candidacy, speaking with surprising vitriol in accusing the Obama campaign of being the dirtiest in history and saying of his position against a war-funding bill, "The day that Senator Obama cast a vote not to fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body." The stresses of the campaign caused the 5 in 7 in (1.7 m) McCain's weight to fall under 100 pounds (45.4 kg). On November 4, 2008, she fought back tears in an appearance as the McCain campaign reached its final day and subsequent loss to Obama.
Continuing her humanitarian aid work with a January 2009 trip to Dubai
, India
, and Cambodia
, she said that she was relieved that the campaign was over and that, while it had been "wild and nuts" at times, it had also been "a remarkable experience to be a contender for the highest office in the land." She said the ongoing global economic crisis
was adversely affecting humanitarian organizations, and she expressed hope that President Obama would be successful in dealing with it.
She expressed support for LGBT rights by appearing alongside her daughter Meghan
at an April 2009 convention of the Log Cabin Republicans
, and posing for the NOH8 Campaign
, a gay rights project opposed to California Proposition 8
, a ballot measure
banning same-sex marriage
. The following year she appeared in another NOH8 public service announcement against bullying, and in it appeared to break with her husband's position and express support for repeal of the "Don't ask, don't tell
" policy prohibiting gays from serving openly in the U.S. military. But she subsequently tweeted
that "I fully support the NOH8 campaign and all it stands for and am proud to be a part of it. But I stand by my husband's stance on DADT."
In September 2009, she spoke about her migraines publicly for the first time and decided to speak at the International Headache Congress about raising awareness for sufferers.
During her husband's eventually successful 2010 senatorial re-election campaign, she rarely made public appearances. She did appear in March 2011 alongside Eastern Congo Initiative
founder Ben Affleck
to testify before a panel of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on behalf on continued monetary assistance to the Democratic Republic of Congo, in an environment where the Republican-controlled House was looking to make significant cuts to foreign aid.
Businessperson
A businessperson is someone involved in a particular undertaking of activities for the purpose of generating revenue from a combination of human, financial, or physical capital. An entrepreneur is an example of a business person...
, and philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
, and the wife of United States Senator and 2000 and 2008 presidential candidate John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
of Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
.
She was born and raised in Phoenix
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, as the daughter of wealthy beer distributor Jim Hensley
Jim Hensley
James Willis "Jim" Hensley was an American businessman in the beer industry.Hensley was born in Texas and moved to Arizona during his youth. He was a bombardier on B-17 Flying Fortresses during World War II and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross...
. After receiving bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
, she became a special education
Special education
Special education is the education of students with special needs in a way that addresses the students' individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials,...
teacher. She married John McCain in 1980 and they had three children together, in addition to adopting another. From 1988 to 1995, she founded and operated a nonprofit organization, the American Voluntary Medical Team, which organized trips by medical personnel to disaster-stricken or war-torn third-world areas. During this time, she became addicted to painkillers for several years and resorted to having a physician write her illegal prescriptions. She reached an agreement with the government in which no charges were filed against her.
Upon her father's death in 2000, she inherited majority control and became chair
Chair (official)
The chairman is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is typically elected or appointed by the members of the group. The chairman presides over meetings of the assembled group and conducts its business in an...
of Hensley & Co.
Hensley & Co.
Hensley & Co., also known as Hensley Beverage Company, is an Anheuser-Busch beer wholesaler and distributor headquartered in the West Phoenix area of Phoenix, Arizona. It markets to the Phoenix, Tempe, and Prescott Valley areas. It is the third-largest Anheuser-Busch distributor in the United...
, one of the largest Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. , is an American brewing company. The company operates 12 breweries in the United States and 18 in other countries. It was, until December 2009, also one of America's largest theme park operators; operating ten theme parks across the United States through the...
beer distributors in the United States. She participated in both of her husband's presidential campaigns and, in 2008, drew both positive and negative scrutiny for her appearance, demeanor, wealth, spending habits, and financial obligations. She continues to be an active philanthropist and serves on the boards of Operation Smile
Operation Smile
Operation Smile is a not-for-profit medical service organization based in Norfolk, Virginia , founded in 1982. A secular NGO, the children's medical charity provides cleft lip and palate repair surgeries to children worldwide, assists countries in reaching self-sufficiency with these surgeries, and...
, CARE
CARE (relief)
CARE is a broad-spectrum secular relief, humanitarian, and development non-governmental organization fighting global poverty. It is non-political, non-sectarian and operates annually in more than 70 countries across the globe.One of the organization’s primary focuses in its fight to eradicate...
and HALO Trust
HALO Trust
The HALO Trust is a non-political, non-religious registered British charity and American non-profit organization whose purpose is to remove the debris left behind by war, in particular, landmines and unexploded ordnance that might present a danger to civilians. Founded in 1988 it was the first...
, frequently making overseas trips in conjunction with their activities.
Early life and education
Cindy Lou Hensley was born in PhoenixPhoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, to James Hensley
Jim Hensley
James Willis "Jim" Hensley was an American businessman in the beer industry.Hensley was born in Texas and moved to Arizona during his youth. He was a bombardier on B-17 Flying Fortresses during World War II and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross...
, who founded Hensley & Co.
Hensley & Co.
Hensley & Co., also known as Hensley Beverage Company, is an Anheuser-Busch beer wholesaler and distributor headquartered in the West Phoenix area of Phoenix, Arizona. It markets to the Phoenix, Tempe, and Prescott Valley areas. It is the third-largest Anheuser-Busch distributor in the United...
, and Marguerite "Smitty" Hensley (née Johnson). She was raised as the only child of her parents' second marriages and grew up on Phoenix's North Central Avenue
Central Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona
The Central Avenue Corridor is a significant stretch of north-south Central Avenue, in Phoenix, Arizona. Roughly bounded by Camelback Road to its north, and McDowell Road to its south, this is one of Phoenix's most vital and heavily trafficked stretches of roadway...
in affluent circumstances. (Dixie L. Burd, who is the daughter of Marguerite Smith through a prior relationship, is her half-sister, as is Kathleen Hensely Portalski, daughter of Jim Hensley and his first wife, Mary Jeanne Parks.) Cindy Hensley was named Junior Rodeo Queen of Arizona
Rodeo queen
A rodeo queen is a female representative and "face" of the sport of rodeo. She represents her rodeo, association, or region for a standard time of usually 12 months and is usually required to wear a cowboy hat, crown, and banner with her title on it. Being a rodeo queen requires skills in western...
in 1968. She went to Central High School
Central High School (Phoenix, Arizona)
Central High School is a high school in the Phoenix Union High School District, Phoenix, Arizona, USA.The campus is located at 4525 North Central Avenue, just north of downtown. Central’s enrollment is 2315 students. Over 60 percent of the population is Hispanic...
in Phoenix, where she was named Best Dressed as a senior and graduated in 1972.
Hensley enrolled at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
. She joined the socially conservative Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Alpha Theta , also known as Theta, is an international fraternity for women founded on January 27, 1870 at DePauw University, formerly Indiana Asbury...
sorority as a freshman, and had many leadership roles in the house during her four years there. Hensley graduated with a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
in 1976. She continued on at USC, and received a Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in special education
Special education
Special education is the education of students with special needs in a way that addresses the students' individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials,...
in 1978. There she participated in a movement therapy
Therapy
This is a list of types of therapy .* Adventure therapy* Animal-assisted therapy* Aquatic therapy* Aromatherapy* Art and dementia* Art therapy* Authentic Movement* Behavioral therapy* Bibliotherapy* Buteyko Method* Chemotherapy...
pilot program that laid the way for a standard treatment for children with severe disabilities; she published the work Movement Therapy: A Possible Approach in 1978. Declining a role in the family business, she worked for a year as a special education teacher dealing with children with Down syndrome
Down syndrome
Down syndrome, or Down's syndrome, trisomy 21, is a chromosomal condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 21st chromosome. It is named after John Langdon Down, the British physician who described the syndrome in 1866. The condition was clinically described earlier in the 19th...
and other disabilities at Agua Fria High School
Agua Fria High School
Agua Fria High School is located in Avondale, Arizona. It is a part of the Agua Fria Union High School District and was its only school for 43 years....
in Avondale, Arizona
Avondale, Arizona
Avondale is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, USA, adjacent to Phoenix, Arizona. According to 2010 Census Bureau, the population of the city is 76,238.Avondale is the home of Phoenix International Raceway, an auto racing facility...
.
Marriage and family
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
in April 1979 at a military reception in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
. He was the U.S. Navy liaison officer to the United States Senate
Office of Legislative Affairs (United States Navy)
The Office of Legislative Affairs is a United States Navy function which coordinates activities between the Department of the Navy and the United States Congress.The office reports to the Secretary of the Navy and the Chief of Naval Operations...
and almost eighteen years her senior. McCain and Hensley quickly began a relationship, traveling between Arizona and Washington to see each other. John McCain then pushed to end his marriage of fourteen years; Carol McCain
Carol McCain
Carol Shepp McCain is a former model, director of the White House Visitors Office, and event planner. She was the first wife of United States Senator and two-time presidential candidate John McCain.-Early life and first marriage:...
and John McCain stopped cohabiting in January 1980, and Carol accepted a divorce in February 1980, effective in April 1980. John and Cindy were married on May 17, 1980 at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel
Arizona Biltmore Hotel
The Arizona Biltmore Hotel is a resort located in Phoenix near 24th Street and Camelback Road. It recently joined the Hilton Hotels' luxury collection The Waldorf-Astoria Collection and was also featured on the Travel Channel show Great Hotels....
in Phoenix. They signed a prenuptial agreement
Prenuptial agreement
A prenuptial agreement, antenuptial agreement, or premarital agreement, commonly abbreviated to prenup or prenupt, is a contract entered into prior to marriage, civil union or any other agreement prior to the main agreement by the people intending to marry or contract with each other...
that kept most of her family's assets under her name; they have since kept their finances apart and file separate income tax returns
Tax return (United States)
Tax returns in the United States are reports filed with the Internal Revenue Service or with the state or local tax collection agency containing information used to calculate income tax or other taxes...
.
Her father's business and political contacts helped John McCain to gain a foothold in Arizona politics. She campaigned with her husband door to door during his successful first bid for U.S. Congress in 1982, and was heavily involved in campaign strategy. Her wealth from an expired trust
Trust law
In common law legal systems, a trust is a relationship whereby property is held by one party for the benefit of another...
from her parents provided significant loans to the campaign and helped it survive a period of early debt.
Once John McCain was elected, the couple moved to Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...
. She spent two months in late 1983 writing handwritten notes on over 4,000 Christmas cards to be sent to constituents and others. She was considered an outsider who was snubbed by the Washington congressional social scene, in part because Carol McCain was a popular figure in town, and she grew homesick for Arizona. She had several miscarriage
Miscarriage
Miscarriage or spontaneous abortion is the spontaneous end of a pregnancy at a stage where the embryo or fetus is incapable of surviving independently, generally defined in humans at prior to 20 weeks of gestation...
s.
She moved back to Arizona in early 1984 and gave birth to the couple's daughter, Meghan
Meghan McCain
Meghan Marguerite McCain is an American columnist, author, and blogger. She is a daughter of U.S. Senator John McCain and Cindy Hensley McCain. McCain first received media attention in 2007 for her blog, McCain Blogette, on which she documented life on the campaign trail and mused about...
, later that year. She subsequently gave birth to sons John Sidney IV (known as "Jack") in 1986 and James (known as "Jimmy") in 1988. Their fourth child, Bridget, was adopted in 1991. Cindy McCain's parents lived across the street and helped her raise the children; her husband was frequently in Washington and she typically only saw him on weekends. In his absence, she organized elaborate fund-raisers for him and expanded their home.
In April 1986, Cindy and her father invested $359,100 in a shopping center project with Phoenix banker Charles Keating
Charles Keating
Charles Humphrey Keating Jr. is an American athlete, lawyer, real estate developer, banker, and financier, most known for his role in the savings and loan scandal of the late 1980s....
. This, combined with her role as a bookkeeper who later had difficulty finding receipts for family trips on Keating's jet, caused complications for her husband during the Keating Five
Keating Five
The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The five senators – Alan Cranston , Dennis DeConcini, John Glenn , John McCain , and Donald W. Riegle,...
scandal, when he was being examined for his role regarding oversight of Keating's bank.
Founding and mission
In 1988, inspired by a vacation that she took four years earlier to substandard medical facilities on Truk LagoonTruk Lagoon
Truk Lagoon, also known as Chuuk, is a sheltered body of water in the central Pacific. North of New Guinea, it is located mid-ocean at 7 degrees North latitude. The atoll consists of a protective reef, around, enclosing a natural harbour 79 by 50 kilometres , with an area of . It has a land...
, Cindy McCain founded the American Voluntary Medical Team (AVMT). It was a non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
that organized trips for doctors, nurses and other medical personnel to provide MASH
Mobile Army Surgical Hospital
The Mobile Army Surgical Hospital refers to a United States Army medical unit serving as a fully functional hospital in a combat area of operations. The units were first established in August 1945, and were deployed during the Korean War and later conflicts. The U.S...
-like emergency medical care to disaster-struck or war-torn third-world areas such as Micronesia
Micronesia
Micronesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising thousands of small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It is distinct from Melanesia to the south, and Polynesia to the east. The Philippines lie to the west, and Indonesia to the southwest....
, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
(before relations were normalized between them and the U.S.), Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
(arriving five days after the conclusion of the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
), Zaire
Zaire
The Republic of Zaire was the name of the present Democratic Republic of the Congo between 27 October 1971 and 17 May 1997. The name of Zaire derives from the , itself an adaptation of the Kongo word nzere or nzadi, or "the river that swallows all rivers".-Self-proclaimed Father of the Nation:In...
(to help refuges from the Rwandan genocide
Rwandan Genocide
The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people in the small East African nation of Rwanda. Over the course of approximately 100 days through mid-July, over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate...
), Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
and El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
. She led 55 of these missions over the next seven years, each of which were at least two weeks in duration. AVMT also supplied treatment to poor sick children around the world. In 1993, Cindy McCain and the AVMT were honored with an award from Food for the Hungry
Food for the Hungry
Food for the Hungry is an international relief and development organization working in more than 26 countries around the world. Food for the Hungry was founded in 1971 by Dr. Larry Ward...
.
Adoption
In 1991, the AVMT went to Dhaka, Bangladesh to provide assistance following the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone1991 Bangladesh cyclone
-External links:** from NIRAPAD disaster response organisation.**...
. While at Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa , born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950...
's Dhaka orphanage
Orphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
, the Sisters of Charity of Mother Teresa Children's Home, McCain met two infant girls she felt needed to be brought to the United States for medical treatment. She decided to adopt one of the girls, later named Bridget, with her husband readily agreeing; the adoption became final in 1993. She helped coordinate the adoption of the other little girl, named Mickey, for family friend Wes Gullett.
Prescription drug addiction
In 1989, Cindy McCain developed an addiction to PercocetPercocet
The combination oxycodone/paracetamol is a narcotic pain reliever used to treat moderate to severe acute pain, marketed by Endo Pharmaceuticals.-History:The U.S...
and Vicodin
Vicodin
Hydrocodone/paracetamol is a combination of two analgesic products hydrocodone and paracetamol used to relieve moderate to severe pain...
, opioid
Opioid
An opioid is a psychoactive chemical that works by binding to opioid receptors, which are found principally in the central and peripheral nervous system and the gastrointestinal tract...
painkillers, which she initially took to alleviate pain
Pain
Pain is an unpleasant sensation often caused by intense or damaging stimuli such as stubbing a toe, burning a finger, putting iodine on a cut, and bumping the "funny bone."...
following two spinal surgeries for ruptured discs
Spinal disc herniation
A spinal disc herniation , informally and misleadingly called a "slipped disc", is a medical condition affecting the spine due to trauma, lifting injuries, or idiopathic, in which a tear in the outer, fibrous ring of an intervertebral disc allows the soft, central portion A spinal disc herniation...
and to ease emotional stress during the Keating Five affair
Keating Five
The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The five senators – Alan Cranston , Dennis DeConcini, John Glenn , John McCain , and Donald W. Riegle,...
. The addiction progressed to where she was taking upwards of twenty pills a day, and she resorted to having an AVMT physician write illegal prescriptions in the names of three AVMT employees without their knowledge. In 1992, her parents staged an intervention
Intervention (counseling)
An intervention is an orchestrated attempt by one, or often many, people to get someone to seek professional help with an addiction or some kind of traumatic event or crisis, or other serious problem. The term intervention is most often used when the traumatic event involves addiction to drugs...
to force her to get help; she told her husband about her problem, attended a drug treatment facility, began outpatient sessions and ended her three years of addiction. Surgery in 1993 resolved her back pain.
In January 1993, Tom Gosinski, an AVMT employee who had discovered her illegal drug use, was terminated on budgetary grounds. Subsequently, he tipped off the Drug Enforcement Administration
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...
about her prior actions and a federal investigation ensued. McCain's defense team, led by John McCain's Keating Five lawyer John Dowd
John M. Dowd
John M. Dowd , an American lawyer. He received his J.D. from Emory University School of Law.-Career:As of 2010 Dowd is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.-Pete Rose investigation:...
, secured an agreement with the U.S. Attorney's office for McCain, a first-time offender, which avoided charges while requiring her to pay financial restitution, enroll in a diversion program
Diversion program
A diversion program in the criminal justice system is a program run by a police department, court, a district attorney's office, or outside agency designed to enable alleged offenders of criminal law to avoid criminal charges and a criminal record...
and do community service
Community service
Community service is donated service or activity that is performed by someone or a group of people for the benefit of the public or its institutions....
. Meanwhile, in early 1994, Gosinski filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against McCain, in which he alleged she ordered him to conceal "improper acts" and "misrepresent facts in a judicial proceeding"; he told her he would settle for $250,000. In response, Dowd characterized this request as blackmail, and requested Maricopa County attorney Rick Romley to investigate Gosinski for extortion
Extortion
Extortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime...
. In the end, Gosinski's credibility was undermined by testimony in Romley's report from other charity staffers who asserted Gosinski privately vowed to blackmail McCain were he ever fired, and both Gosinski's lawsuit and the extortion investigation against him were dropped.
Knowing that prosecutors were about to publicly disclose her past addiction, McCain preemptively revealed the story to reporters, saying that she was doing so willingly: "Although my conduct did not result in compromising any missions of AVMT, my actions were wrong, and I regret them ... if what I say can help just one person to face the problem, it's worthwhile."
Aftermath
AVMT concluded its activities in 1995 in the wake of the McCain prescription narcotics controversy. That year, McCain founded a new organization, the Hensley Family Foundation, which donates monies towards children's programs in Arizona and nationally. She was largely a stay-at-home mom during the balance of the 1990s. She also held positions as vice president, director, and vice chair of Hensley & Co. In the mid-1990s, she began suffering from severe migraine headaches, for a while keeping them secret from her husband and minimizing their effect to the rest of her family. Her attacks often resulted in trips to the emergency room, were caused by many different triggers, and she tried many different treatments.Role in 2000 presidential campaign
Although wary of the media and still having no love for the political world, McCain was active in her husband's eventually unsuccessful campaign for President of the United States in 2000John McCain presidential campaign, 2000
John McCain, the United States Senator from Arizona, launched his first candidacy for the presidency of the United States in the 2000 presidential election....
. She mostly provided good cheer, without discussing her opinions about national policy. She impressed Republican voters with her elegance at coffee shops and other small campaign settings, where she frequently referred to her children, carpooling and charity work.
McCain was upset by the notorious smear tactics against her husband in the South Carolina primary
South Carolina primary
The South Carolina presidential primary has become one of several key early state nominating contests in the process of choosing nominees of the Democratic and Republican parties for the following election for President of the United States....
that year. These included allegations involving her adopted daughter Bridget that she found "despicable", as well as insinuations that McCain herself was currently a drug addict. Though deeply wounded by the attacks for a long time, Cindy McCain eventually forgave those responsible. She was chosen as the chair of the Arizona delegation to the 2000 Republican National Convention
2000 Republican National Convention
The 2000 National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States convened at the First Union Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from July 31 to August 3, 2000. The 2066 delegates assembled at the convention nominated Texas Governor George W. Bush as the Republican candidate for U.S....
.
Between presidential campaigns
Chair (official)
The chairman is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is typically elected or appointed by the members of the group. The chairman presides over meetings of the assembled group and conducts its business in an...
of the now $300 million-a-year Hensley & Co.
Hensley & Co.
Hensley & Co., also known as Hensley Beverage Company, is an Anheuser-Busch beer wholesaler and distributor headquartered in the West Phoenix area of Phoenix, Arizona. It markets to the Phoenix, Tempe, and Prescott Valley areas. It is the third-largest Anheuser-Busch distributor in the United...
following her father's death. It is one of the largest Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. , is an American brewing company. The company operates 12 breweries in the United States and 18 in other countries. It was, until December 2009, also one of America's largest theme park operators; operating ten theme parks across the United States through the...
beer distributors in the United States. She, her children, and one of John McCain's children from his first marriage, together own 68 percent of the company. As chair, her role takes the form of consultations with the company CEO on major initiatives such as new products, new plants or employee welfare, rather than that of an active physical presence. She does not have operational control of Hensley, and Anheuser-Busch considers her to be an absentee owner. By 2007, she had an annual income of over $400,000 from Hensley and an estimated net worth of $100 million. She also owned at least $2.7 million worth of shares of Anheuser-Busch stock. With her children, she owns a minority stake in the Arizona Diamondbacks
Arizona Diamondbacks
The Arizona Diamondbacks are a professional baseball team based in Phoenix. They play in the West Division of Major League Baseball's National League. From 1998 to the present, they have played in Chase Field...
baseball team.
McCain became actively involved with Operation Smile
Operation Smile
Operation Smile is a not-for-profit medical service organization based in Norfolk, Virginia , founded in 1982. A secular NGO, the children's medical charity provides cleft lip and palate repair surgeries to children worldwide, assists countries in reaching self-sufficiency with these surgeries, and...
in 2001, taking parts in its medical missions to Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, Vietnam and India. She was honored by the organization in 2005 and sits on its board of directors
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
.
McCain joined the board of directors of CARE
CARE (relief)
CARE is a broad-spectrum secular relief, humanitarian, and development non-governmental organization fighting global poverty. It is non-political, non-sectarian and operates annually in more than 70 countries across the globe.One of the organization’s primary focuses in its fight to eradicate...
in 2005. She is on the board of the HALO Trust
HALO Trust
The HALO Trust is a non-political, non-religious registered British charity and American non-profit organization whose purpose is to remove the debris left behind by war, in particular, landmines and unexploded ordnance that might present a danger to civilians. Founded in 1988 it was the first...
, and has visited operations to remove landmines in Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
, and Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
. She makes financial contributions to these organizations via her family trust and views her role as watching them in the field to ensure they are frugal and their money is being spent effectively. On occasion she has criticized foreign regimes on human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
grounds, such as Myanmar's military junta.
In April 2004, McCain suffered a near-fatal stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
caused by high blood pressure, although she was still able to attend some events. After several months of physical therapy to overcome leg and arm limitations, she made a mostly full recovery, although she still suffered from some short-term memory
Short-term memory
Short-term memory is the capacity for holding a small amount of information in mind in an active, readily available state for a short period of time. The duration of short-term memory is believed to be in the order of seconds. A commonly cited capacity is 7 ± 2 elements...
loss and difficulties in writing. She owns a home in Coronado, California
Coronado, California
Coronado, also known as Coronado Island, is an affluent resort city located in San Diego County, California, 5.2 miles from downtown San Diego. Its population was 24,697 at the 2010 census, up from 24,100 at the 2000 census. U.S. News and World Report lists Coronado as one of the most expensive...
, next to the Hotel del Coronado
Hotel del Coronado
Hotel del Coronado is a beachfront luxury hotel in the city of Coronado, just across the San Diego Bay from San Diego, California. It is one of the few surviving examples of an American architectural genre: the wooden Victorian beach resort...
; her family had vacationed in Coronado growing up, and she has gone there for recuperation and family get-togethers. She or her family own other residential and commercial real estate in California, Arizona and Virginia and, including rental properties, McCain herself owns ten homes and part of three office complexes. She is an amateur pilot and race car driver.
Role in 2008 presidential campaign
John McCain presidential campaign, 2008
John McCain, the senior United States Senator from Arizona, launched his second candidacy for the presidency of the United States in an unsuccessful bid to win the 2008 presidential election. His candidacy, in the works for a number of years, was informally announced on February 28, 2007 during a...
, despite not wanting her husband to run initially due to bad memories of their 2000 experience and worries the effect on her children, especially son Jimmy who was headed to serve in the Iraq War. She eventually supported her husband in his goals, but defined her own campaign roles; she frequently returned to Arizona to attend to domestic duties or interrupted campaigning for her overseas charitable work. She preferred to travel with her husband and introduce him rather than act as a campaign surrogate with a separate schedule. She wore her hair in a fashionable but severe style and was sometimes seen with an unsmiling countenance in her appearances. In August 2008, a member of the public shook her hand very vigorously, aggravating her existing carpal tunnel syndrome
Carpal tunnel syndrome
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is an entrapment idiopathic median neuropathy, causing paresthesia, pain, and other symptoms in the distribution of the median nerve due to its compression at the wrist in the carpal tunnel. The pathophysiology is not completely understood but can be considered compression...
condition and causing her to slightly sprain her wrist. The campaign exacerbated her migraine headaches and she sometimes had to wear dark glasses to shield herself from bright lights. The pressures of the campaign also brought out a range of behaviors between her and her husband, varying from moments of great tenderness and concern to raging arguments that dismayed their staffs.
McCain stated that the American public wanted a First Lady of the United States
First Lady of the United States
First Lady of the United States is the title of the hostess of the White House. Because this position is traditionally filled by the wife of the president of the United States, the title is most often applied to the wife of a sitting president. The current first lady is Michelle Obama.-Current:The...
who would tend toward a traditional role in that position. She would not attend Cabinet
United States Cabinet
The Cabinet of the United States is composed of the most senior appointed officers of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States, which are generally the heads of the federal executive departments...
meetings, but would continue her involvement in overseas non-profit organizations and would urge Americans to do the same globally or locally. She envisioned herself as a possible figurehead for humanitarian work, along the lines of Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century...
. She continued to expand her roles in such organizations, joining in April 2008 the board of Grateful Nation Montana, which provides scholarships and services to the children of Montana service personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
George W. Bush administration
The presidency of George W. Bush began on January 20, 2001, when he was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States of America. The oldest son of former president George H. W. Bush, George W...
for not deploying enough troops during the Iraq War. Her close examination of the financial books of the McCain campaign during the first part of 2007 convinced the candidate that its profligate spending could not go on and led to the drastic mid-year reduction of the campaign's staff and scope. In February 2008, McCain made news by being critical of Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is the wife of the 44th and incumbent President of the United States, Barack Obama, and is the first African-American First Lady of the United States...
, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, who had said, "And let me tell you something: For the first time in my adult lifetime I am really proud of my country." McCain, who was genuinely offended by the remark, replied: "I am proud of my country. I don't know about you—if you heard those words earlier—I am very proud of my country." Also in February 2008, she publicly appeared beside her husband during a press conference in response to a newspaper report regarding his connection to a lobbyist.
McCain faced media scrutiny about her wealth, spending habits, and financial obligations. At first declining to release her separate income tax returns, saying it was a privacy issue and that she would not do so even if she became First Lady, she later released the first two pages of her 2006 return, which showed $6 million in income for that year (including nearly $570,000 in itemized deduction
Itemized deduction
An itemized deduction is an eligible expense that individual taxpayers in the United States can report on their federal income tax returns in order to decrease their taxable income....
s and more than $1.7 million paid in federal income taxes). The campaign said that any decisions about how to handle her role in Hensley & Co. if she became First Lady would not be made until that time. While she stood to gain a considerable profit from the agreed-upon acquisition of Anheuser-Busch by the Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
company InBev
InBev
InBev is a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev. The company existed independently for several years - since the merger between Interbrew and AmBev and until the acquisition of Anheuser-Busch. InBev has operations in over 30 countries and sales in over 130 countries...
, she was initially under some political pressure to help oppose the deal and keep Anheuser-Busch under American ownership.
In June 2008, a Rasmussen Reports
Rasmussen Reports
Rasmussen Reports is an American media company that publishes and distributes information based on public opinion polling. Founded by pollster Scott Rasmussen in 2003, the company updates daily indexes including the President's job approval rating, and provides public opinion data, analysis, and...
poll found that 49 percent of voters viewed Cindy McCain favorably and 29 percent unfavorably, while an ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
/Washington Post poll found figures of 39 percent and 25 percent respectively. Her style and fashion sense was the subject of much media scrutiny. McCain was compared to former first lady Nancy Reagan
Nancy Reagan
Nancy Davis Reagan is the widow of former United States President Ronald Reagan and was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989....
, due to both her style and wardrobe as well as her demeanor. Early in the campaign, some recipe
Recipe
A recipe is a set of instructions that describe how to prepare or make something, especially a culinary dish.-Components:Modern culinary recipes normally consist of several components*The name of the dish...
s attributed to Cindy McCain turned out to be copied from other sources; the campaign attributed the problem to an error by an intern.
Cindy McCain spoke on both the opening and final nights of the early September 2008 Republican National Convention
2008 Republican National Convention
The United States 2008 Republican National Convention took place at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, from September 1, through September 4, 2008...
. On the first night, truncated due to national attention regarding Hurricane Gustav
Hurricane Gustav
The name Gustav has been used for five tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean:* 1984's Tropical Storm Gustav - Spent most of its existence as a tropical depression hovering over Bermuda, no major damage was reported....
, she appeared with First Lady Laura Bush
Laura Bush
Laura Lane Welch Bush is the wife of the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush. She was the First Lady of the United States from January 20, 2001, to January 20, 2009. She has held a love of books and reading since childhood and her life and education have reflected that interest...
to deliver short remarks encouraging support for hurricane relief efforts along the Gulf Coast, and on the last night, she introduced the seven McCain children and spoke about how her husband's love for his country had been passed on to them. In October 2008, she increased the intensity of her public remarks against Obama's candidacy, speaking with surprising vitriol in accusing the Obama campaign of being the dirtiest in history and saying of his position against a war-funding bill, "The day that Senator Obama cast a vote not to fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body." The stresses of the campaign caused the 5 in 7 in (1.7 m) McCain's weight to fall under 100 pounds (45.4 kg). On November 4, 2008, she fought back tears in an appearance as the McCain campaign reached its final day and subsequent loss to Obama.
Subsequent life
After the election, Cindy McCain was approached about appearing on Dancing With the Stars. She seriously considered participating, but according to John McCain, was concerned that her surgically replaced knee would not be able to withstand the rigors of the competition.Continuing her humanitarian aid work with a January 2009 trip to Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, and Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, she said that she was relieved that the campaign was over and that, while it had been "wild and nuts" at times, it had also been "a remarkable experience to be a contender for the highest office in the land." She said the ongoing global economic crisis
Late 2000s recession
The late-2000s recession, sometimes referred to as the Great Recession or Lesser Depression or Long Recession, is a severe ongoing global economic problem that began in December 2007 and took a particularly sharp downward turn in September 2008. The Great Recession has affected the entire world...
was adversely affecting humanitarian organizations, and she expressed hope that President Obama would be successful in dealing with it.
She expressed support for LGBT rights by appearing alongside her daughter Meghan
Meghan McCain
Meghan Marguerite McCain is an American columnist, author, and blogger. She is a daughter of U.S. Senator John McCain and Cindy Hensley McCain. McCain first received media attention in 2007 for her blog, McCain Blogette, on which she documented life on the campaign trail and mused about...
at an April 2009 convention of the Log Cabin Republicans
Log Cabin Republicans
The Log Cabin Republicans is an organization that works within the Republican Party to advocate equal rights for all Americans, including gays and lesbians in the United States with state chapters and a national office in Washington, D.C...
, and posing for the NOH8 Campaign
NOH8 Campaign
The NOH8 Campaign is a silent protest photo project against California Proposition 8. The campaign features photographs portraying people in front of a white backdrop wearing white t-shirts, their mouths taped shut and "NOH8" painted on their cheek. The campaign was created on February 1, 2009, by...
, a gay rights project opposed to California Proposition 8
California Proposition 8 (2008)
Proposition 8 was a ballot proposition and constitutional amendment passed in the November 2008 state elections...
, a ballot measure
California ballot proposition
In California, a ballot proposition is a proposed law that is submitted to the electorate for approval in a direct vote . It may take the form of a constitutional amendment or an ordinary statute. A ballot proposition may be proposed by the State Legislature or by a petition signed by members of...
banning same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage in California
The status of same-sex marriage in California is unique among the 50 U.S. states, in that the state formerly granted marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but has discontinued doing so...
. The following year she appeared in another NOH8 public service announcement against bullying, and in it appeared to break with her husband's position and express support for repeal of the "Don't ask, don't tell
Don't ask, don't tell
"Don't ask, don't tell" was the official United States policy on homosexuals serving in the military from December 21, 1993 to September 20, 2011. The policy prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while...
" policy prohibiting gays from serving openly in the U.S. military. But she subsequently tweeted
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
that "I fully support the NOH8 campaign and all it stands for and am proud to be a part of it. But I stand by my husband's stance on DADT."
In September 2009, she spoke about her migraines publicly for the first time and decided to speak at the International Headache Congress about raising awareness for sufferers.
During her husband's eventually successful 2010 senatorial re-election campaign, she rarely made public appearances. She did appear in March 2011 alongside Eastern Congo Initiative
Eastern Congo Initiative
The Eastern Congo Initiative is an American nonprofit organization established by Ben Affleck in 2010 as "the first U.S. based advocacy and grant-making initiative wholly focused on working with and for the people of eastern Congo"...
founder Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt , better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor, film director, writer, and producer. He became known with his performances in Kevin Smith's films such as Mallrats and Chasing Amy...
to testify before a panel of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on behalf on continued monetary assistance to the Democratic Republic of Congo, in an environment where the Republican-controlled House was looking to make significant cuts to foreign aid.