Curt Schilling says he might run for Congress in Arizona. Donald Trump loves the idea.
The former Red Sox pitcher says it's something he is "absolutely considering."
Curt Schilling is, once again, floating a run for Congress — this time in Arizona — and President Donald Trump is rooting him on.
“Terrific!” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning, calling Schilling a “great pitcher and patriot.”
Curt Schilling, a great pitcher and patriot, is considering a run for Congress in Arizona. Terrific! @foxandfriends
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2019
The president’s tweet comes after the outspokenly conservative former Red Sox pitcher told a radio host over the weekend that he was considering returning to his native Arizona to launch a congressional campaign against one of the state’s incumbent Democrats. Schilling confirmed his interest in an email Monday to the Arizona Republic, though he didn’t say where or when he might run.
“Not ready to do any of that right now,” he wrote. “If/When things solidify I will but right now it’s something in the ‘I’m considering it’ stage.”
Schilling has lived in Medfield since retiring from baseball in 2009 and reportedly still considers himself a Massachusetts resident, but told the paper that “state is not the state I grew up in.” While he was born in Alaska, the 52-year-old spent the first two decades of his life in Arizona and also played for the Arizona Diamondbacks for three and a half years, including their World Series-winning season in 2001. He also visited the state last week to support a local Republican candidate for Congress and call for tougher immigration laws.
“Making Arizona citizens of EVERY Race, religion and sexual orientation 2nd class citizens to illegal immigrants is about as anti-American as it gets,” Schilling told the Republic. “When you have homeless veterans, children, and you’re spending tax dollars on people smuggling drugs and children across our border someone in charge needs their ass kicked.”
After getting fired from ESPN in 2016 for sharing a transphobic meme, Schilling joined the conservative website Breitbart to host a fledging political podcast. Since then, he has repeatedly come under criticism for promoting inflammatory content and conspiracy theories on social media.
A longtime Republican and Trump supporter, Schilling has repeatedly floated the idea of running for a Senate seat in Massachusetts, first in 2009 after the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy and again in 2016 ahead of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s re-election.
“I’ve made my decision. I’m going to run,” Schilling said in 2016, adding that he still had to clear the idea with his wife, Shonda.
However, his 2018 Senate campaign failed to ever materialize and Schilling eventually endorsed Shiva Ayyadurai’s quixotic bid against Warren, before later campaigning for the Republican nominee, former state Rep. Geoff Diehl.
Apparently, Schilling is still working on getting his wife on board with the idea of his future political career.
“It’s something that my wife and I have talked about, and she’s now becoming more and more pumped at the potential,” he said in an interview this past weekend with Armed American Radio, referring to his potential congressional campaign in Arizona. “Obviously, we’re still quite a few discussions away, but yeah, it’s something we’re absolutely considering.”
