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Wikipedia

Cindy McCain

February 15, 2024

Cindy Lou McCain (née Hensley; born May 20, 1954)[2] is an American diplomat, businesswoman, and humanitarian who is the executive director of the World Food Programme. McCain previously served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture from 2021 to 2023. She is the widow of U.S. Senator John McCain from Arizona, who was the 2008 Republican presidential nominee.

Cindy McCain
Executive Director of the World Food Programme
Assumed office
April 5, 2023
Secretary GeneralAntónio Guterres
Preceded byDavid Beasley
12th United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture
In office
November 5, 2021 – April 5, 2023
PresidentJoe Biden
Preceded byKip E. Tom
Succeeded byRodney Hunter (Chargé 'd Affairs)
Personal details
Born
Cindy Lou Hensley

(1954-05-20) May 20, 1954 (age 69)
Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.
Political partyRepublican[1]
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1980; died 2018)​
Children4, including Meghan
RelativesJim Hensley (father)
EducationUniversity of Southern California (BA, MA)
Cindy McCain's voice
McCain's opening statement at her confirmation hearing to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture
Recorded September 28, 2021

McCain was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, and is a 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 the couple moved to Arizona in 1981, where her husband was elected to the United States Congress the following year and reelected five more times. The couple 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.

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 continued to be an active philanthropist and served on the boards of Operation Smile, Eastern Congo Initiative, CARE, and HALO Trust, frequently making overseas trips in conjunction with their activities. During the 2010s, she became prominent in the fight against human trafficking. From 2017 until his death the following year, she dealt with her husband's battle against glioblastoma.

McCain has remained visible in public life since then. While herself a Republican, she made a cross-party endorsement of Joe Biden in the 2020 United States presidential election. She was nominated to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture ambassadorship by President Biden in June 2021 and confirmed by the Senate in October 2021. Much of her tenure in that position focused on dealing with the 2022–2023 food crises largely caused by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the effects of climate change on agriculture.

Early life and education edit

Cindy Lou Hensley was born in Phoenix, Arizona,[3] to James Hensley, who founded Hensley & Co.,[4] and Marguerite "Smitty" Hensley (née Johnson).[3][5][6] She has described her mother as being very much from Southern culture, while her father reflected the Western lifestyle.[7] She was raised as the only child of her parents' second marriages[8] and grew up on Phoenix's North Central Avenue in affluent circumstances.[9][10][11] Dixie Lea Burd (d. 2008),[12] daughter of Marguerite Smith through a prior relationship, was her half-sister,[13] as was Kathleen Hensley Portalski (d. 2017),[14] daughter of Jim Hensley and his first wife, Mary Jeanne Parks.[13][15] Cindy Hensley was named Junior Rodeo Queen of Arizona in 1968.[16][17] She went to Central High School[8] in Phoenix, where she was named Best Dressed as a senior and graduated in 1972.[9][18]

Hensley enrolled at the University of Southern California.[19] She joined Kappa Alpha Theta sorority as a freshman,[11][20] and had many leadership roles in the house during her four years there.[19] Hensley graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in education in 1976.[2][19] She continued on at USC, and received a Master of Arts degree in special education in 1978.[2][9] There she participated in a movement therapy pilot program that led the way to a standard treatment for children with severe disabilities;[21] she published the work Movement Therapy: A Possible Approach in 1978.[22] Declining a role in the family business,[23] she worked for a year as a special education teacher of children with Down syndrome and other disabilities at Agua Fria High School in Avondale, Arizona.[9][3][16][21]

Marriage and family edit

 
Greeting President Ronald Reagan in 1983

Hensley met John McCain in April 1979 at a military reception in Honolulu, Hawaii.[24] He was the U.S. Navy liaison officer to the United States Senate, and was accompanying a group of senators heading for China.[24] She was in Hawaii on a family vacation with her parents.[25] Hensley was talking to Jill Biden, the wife of Senator Joe Biden, who suggested that she talk to McCain;[26] her father made the introduction.[25] He was almost 18 years her senior;[27] by her later description, each fudged the age they said they were to the other: "He made himself younger, and I made myself older, of course."[28]

He had been married to Carol McCain for 14 years and they had three children (two of whom he adopted from her first marriage).[29] McCain and Hensley quickly began a relationship,[27] traveling between Arizona and Washington to see each other.[16] John McCain then pushed to end his marriage[24] and the couple stopped cohabiting in January 1980,[30] Carol McCain consented to a divorce in February 1980,[24] it was finalized in April 1980.

Hensley and McCain were married on May 17, 1980, at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix.[16] They signed a prenuptial agreement that kept most of her family's assets under her name;[31] they kept their finances apart and filed separate income tax returns.[31]

 
The full McCain family in 2008. In the front row are the children with Cindy: Meghan, Jimmy, Jack, and Bridget. In the back row are his children from John McCain's first marriage: Andrew, Douglas, and Sidney.

Her father's business and political contacts helped her new husband to gain a foothold in Arizona politics.[24] She campaigned with her husband door to door during his successful first bid for U.S. Congress in 1982,[17] and was heavily involved in campaign strategy.[11] Her wealth from an expired trust from her parents provided significant loans to the campaign[32][33][34] and helped it survive a period of early debt.[35]

Once her husband was elected, the McCains moved to Alexandria, Virginia.[36] She spent two months in late 1983 writing handwritten notes on over 4,000 Christmas cards to be sent to constituents and others.[36] 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,[37] and she grew homesick for Arizona.[16][36] She had several miscarriages.[16][27]

She moved back to Arizona in early 1984[16] and gave birth to the couple's daughter Meghan later that year.[16] She subsequently gave birth to sons John Sidney IV (known as "Jack") in 1986 and James (known as "Jimmy") in 1988.[38] Their fourth child, Bridget, was adopted in 1991. 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 and holidays.[16][27][28] In his absence, she organized elaborate fund-raisers for him and expanded their home.[37]

In April 1986, McCain and her father invested $359,100 in a shopping center project with Phoenix banker Charles Keating.[16] This, combined with her role as a bookkeeper who later had difficulty finding receipts for family trips on Keating's jet,[23] caused complications for her husband during the Keating Five scandal, when he was being examined for his role regarding oversight of Keating's bank.[16]

American Voluntary Medical Team edit

Founding and mission edit

In 1988, inspired by a vacation that she took four years earlier to substandard medical facilities on Truk Lagoon,[16][39] McCain founded the American Voluntary Medical Team (AVMT).[2] 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 developing countries such as Micronesia, Vietnam (before relations were normalized between them and the U.S.[39]), Kuwait (arriving five days after the conclusion of the Gulf War[39]), Zaire (to help refugees from the Rwandan genocide[37]), Iraq, Nicaragua, India, Bangladesh, and El Salvador.[10][40][41][42][43] She led 55 of these missions over the next seven years,[21] each of which were at least two weeks in duration.[43] AVMT also supplied treatment to poor sick children around the world.[44] In 1993, McCain and the AVMT were honored with an award from Food for the Hungry.[10]

Adoption edit

In 1991, the AVMT went to Dhaka, Bangladesh, to provide assistance following the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone.[41] While at Mother Teresa's Dhaka orphanage, the Sisters of Charity of Mother Teresa Children's Home,[45] McCain met two infant girls she felt needed to be brought to the United States for medical treatment.[27] She decided to adopt one of the girls, later named Bridget, with her husband readily agreeing;[10] the adoption became final in 1993.[46] She helped coordinate the adoption of the other little girl for family friend Wes Gullett.[10]

Prescription drug addiction edit

 
At the christening of USS John S. McCain, September 1992, with daughter Meghan, son Jack, and husband John at the Bath Iron Works shipyard, Bath, Maine.

In 1989, McCain developed an addiction to Percocet and Vicodin.[47] She initially took the opioid painkillers to alleviate pain after two spinal surgeries for ruptured discs.[48][49] She also used the drugs to ease emotional stress during the Keating Five scandal.[47] The addiction progressed to where she was taking upwards of twenty pills a day,[16] and she resorted to having an AVMT physician write illegal prescriptions in the names of three AVMT employees without their knowledge.[42][48] In 1992, her parents staged an intervention to force her to get help;[23] she told her husband about her problem and subsequently attended a drug treatment facility where she began outpatient sessions to begin recovery from drug addiction.[47] In 1993, she underwent surgery, which resolved her back pain.[47][50]

In January 1993, Tom Gosinski, an AVMT employee who had discovered her illegal drug use, was terminated on budgetary grounds.[51] Subsequently, he tipped off the Drug Enforcement Administration about her prior actions and a federal investigation ensued.[48][51] McCain's defense team, led by her husband'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.[10][48][51] 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.[48][47] In response, Dowd characterized this request as blackmail, and requested Maricopa County attorney Rick Romley to investigate Gosinski for extortion.[48][51] 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,[47] and both Gosinski's lawsuit and the extortion investigation against him were dropped.[48]

Before prosecutors were able to publicly disclose her addiction to pain medication, McCain preemptively revealed the story to reporters, stating 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."[10][48][47]

Aftermath edit

AVMT concluded its activities in 1995 in the wake of the McCain prescription narcotics controversy.[40][48] That year, McCain founded a new organization, the Hensley Family Foundation, which donates funds to children's programs nationally as well as in Arizona.[10] She was largely a stay-at-home mom during the balance of the 1990s.[23] She also held positions as vice president, director, and vice chair of Hensley & Co.[34][35] 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.[52][53] The condition frequently resulted in visits to an emergency room.[53][54] Her attacks were caused by many different migraine triggers and she tried many different treatments.[54]

Role in 2000 presidential campaign edit

Although wary of the media[10] and still having no love for the political world,[55] McCain was active in her husband's eventually unsuccessful campaign for President of the United States in 2000.[23] 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.[17]

McCain was upset by the notorious smear tactics[56][57] against her husband in the South Carolina primary that year. These included allegations involving her adopted daughter Bridget that she found "despicable",[23] as well as insinuations that McCain herself was currently a drug addict.[57][58] Though deeply wounded by the attacks for a long time,[59] McCain eventually forgave those responsible.[17] She was chosen as the chair of the Arizona delegation to the 2000 Republican National Convention.[21]

Between presidential campaigns edit

 
Cindy and John McCain at a Naval Sea Cadet Corps graduation, Fort Dix, New Jersey, July 2001

In 2000, she became chair of the now $300 million-a-year Hensley & Co.[60][61] following her father's death.[50] It is one of the largest Anheuser-Busch beer distributors in the United States.[62] Together, McCain, her children, and one of John McCain's children from his first marriage own 68 percent of the company.[63] 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.[64][65] She does not have operational control of Hensley, and Anheuser-Busch considers her to be an absentee owner.[66] By 2007, she had an annual income of over $400,000 from Hensley and an estimated net worth of $100 million.[31] She also owned at least $2.7 million worth of shares of Anheuser-Busch stock.[66][67] With her children, she owns a minority stake in the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team.[35][68]

McCain became actively involved with Operation Smile in 2001,[69] taking parts in its medical missions to Morocco, Vietnam and India.[69] She was honored by the organization in 2005[69] and sits on its board of directors.[40] McCain joined the board of directors of CARE in 2005.[40] She is on the board of the HALO Trust,[40] and has visited operations to remove landmines in Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Mozambique, and Angola.[21] She makes financial contributions to these organizations via her family trust[39] and views her role as watching them in the field to ensure they are frugal and their money is being spent effectively.[65] On occasion she has criticized foreign regimes on human rights grounds, such as Myanmar's military junta.[70]

In April 2004, McCain had a near-fatal stroke caused by high blood pressure,[50][71] although she was still able to attend some events.[37] After several months of physical therapy to overcome leg and arm limitations, she made a mostly full recovery, although she still had some short-term memory loss and difficulties in writing.[50] She owns a home in Coronado, California, next to the Hotel del Coronado;[65] her family had vacationed in Coronado growing up, and she has gone there for recuperation and family get-togethers.[65] She or her family own other residential and commercial real estate in California, Arizona and Virginia[35] and, including rental properties, McCain herself owns ten homes and part of three office complexes.[66][72][73] She is an amateur pilot and race car driver.[16] After her stroke, she trained in the motorsport of drifting and precision driving.[74][75]

Role in 2008 presidential campaign edit

 
Visiting President Bush at the White House on March 5, 2008

She was active and visible in her husband's second presidential campaign during 2007 and 2008,[17] 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.[59] She eventually supported her husband in his goals, but defined her own campaign roles;[59] she frequently returned to Arizona to attend to domestic duties[65] or interrupted campaigning for her overseas charitable work.[39][70] She preferred to travel with her husband and introduce him rather than act as a campaign surrogate with a separate schedule.[37][76] She wore her hair in a fashionable but severe style and was sometimes seen with an unsmiling countenance in her appearances.[55] 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.[77] The campaign exacerbated her migraine headaches and she sometimes had to wear dark glasses to shield herself from bright lights.[52][54] 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.[78]

McCain stated that the American public wanted a First Lady of the United States who would tend toward a traditional role in that position.[79] She would not attend Cabinet meetings,[65] but would continue her involvement in overseas non-profit organizations and would urge Americans to do the same globally or locally.[65] She envisioned herself as a possible figurehead for humanitarian work, along the lines of Diana, Princess of Wales.[80] 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.[81]

 
Addressing the delegates on the final night of the 2008 Republican National Convention

She made statements critical of the Bush administration for not deploying enough troops during the Iraq War.[17] 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.[39][82] 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,[83] 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."[84] 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.[85]

McCain faced media scrutiny about her wealth, spending habits, and financial obligations.[73][86][87] She initially declined to release her separate income tax returns, saying that it was a privacy issue and she would not release the returns even if she became First Lady[88] 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 deductions and more than $1.7 million paid in federal income taxes).[89] 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.[63] While she stood to gain a considerable profit from the agreed-upon acquisition of Anheuser-Busch by the Belgian company InBev,[67][90] she was initially under some political pressure to help oppose the deal and keep Anheuser-Busch under American ownership.[91]

 
Six days before the general election loss, the McCains campaign together in Elyria, Ohio.

In June 2008, a Rasmussen Reports poll found that 49 percent of voters viewed McCain favorably and 29 percent unfavorably,[92] while an ABC News/The Washington Post poll found figures of 39 percent and 25 percent respectively.[93] Her style and fashion sense was the subject of much media scrutiny.[94][95] McCain was compared to former first lady Nancy Reagan,[94] due to both her style and wardrobe[96][97] as well as her demeanor.[98] Early in the campaign, some recipes attributed to McCain turned out to be copied from other sources; the campaign attributed the problem to an error by an intern.[99][100]

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,[101] 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.[102] In October 2008, she increased the intensity of her public remarks against Obama's candidacy,[103] 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."[104] The stresses of the campaign caused the 5-foot-7-inch (1.70 m) McCain's weight to fall under 100 pounds (45 kg).[52] On November 4, 2008, she fought back tears in an appearance as the McCain campaign reached its final day and subsequent loss to Obama.[105]

Subsequent activities edit

After the election, McCain was approached about appearing on Dancing with the Stars. She seriously considered participating, but according to her husband, was concerned that her surgically replaced knee would not be able to withstand the rigors of the competition.[106]

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."[107] 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.[107]

 
McCain testifying before Congress in March 2011

She expressed support for LGBT rights by appearing alongside her daughter Meghan at an April 2009 convention of the Log Cabin Republicans,[108] and posing for the NOH8 Campaign, a gay rights project opposed to California Proposition 8, a ballot measure banning same-sex marriage.[109] 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.[110] However, 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."[111]

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 others with the condition.[52][54] During her husband's eventually successful 2010 senatorial re-election campaign, she rarely made public appearances.[112]

McCain appeared in March 2011 alongside Eastern Congo Initiative founder Ben Affleck to testify before a panel of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on behalf of 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.[113] She has noted the difficulty of getting attention to some of the topics she feels most strongly about;[114] at a Futures Without Violence summit in 2012, she said, "When I talk about rape in Congo, people turn their backs and run, especially the men."[115]

 
McCain speaking at an event at The McCain Institute in November 2013

In late 2013 and early 2014, McCain used the occasion of Super Bowl XLVIII to highlight her concerns about sex trafficking in the United States, an issue that she had begun working on in conjunction with The McCain Institute.[116][117] She campaigned for legislation to address the problem at both the federal and state levels.[117] She also served as co-chair of the Arizona Governor Jan Brewer's Task Force on Human Trafficking.[116]

In April 2015, during the Sedona Forum, McCain and actress Demi Moore discussed ways to end sex trafficking.[118] Later in that year she staged appearances with Heidi Heitkamp, Democratic Senator from North Dakota, to discuss human trafficking in that state and elsewhere.[114] She said of trafficking, "Everybody has seen it; they just didn't know what they were looking at."[114] She praised Obama and Congress for passage of the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 and, together with Malika Saada Saar, executive director of the Human Rights Project for Girls, started the No Such Thing Campaign to end the use of the term "child prostitute", saying "there are only victims and survivors of child rape."[119]

During the 2016 United States presidential election, McCain and her husband ended up not voting for the Republican nominee in the wake of the Access Hollywood controversy.[120] Nonetheless, following the change in administration in Washington, in May 2017 it was reported that McCain was under consideration for a prominent role at the U.S. Department of State, possibly focusing on issues related to human trafficking.[121] In June 2017, there were further reports that after extensive recruiting by President Trump following a recommendation from Ivanka Trump, she had agreed to become an Ambassador-at-Large dealing with matters of human trafficking, refugees, and humanitarian aid.[122] But no announcement ever came along the lines of this report.

Husband's illness and death edit

 
The John and Cindy McCain residence in Phoenix, Arizona

In July 2017, her husband was diagnosed with a glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumor.[28] She issued a public statement saying that, "We as a family will face the next hurdle together. One thing I do know is he is the toughest person I know. He is my hero and I love him with all my heart."[28] Senator McCain underwent treatment, and after December 2017 no longer went to Washington, D.C., remaining in Arizona.[123]

The severity of her husband's illness led to the possibility that he would not be able to finish his term in office and that the Governor of Arizona would have to appoint a successor until a special election could be held. There is a tradition in such situations for politically involved spouses to be named as replacements, a practice known as "widow's succession".[123] The possibility became an issue in the 2018 Arizona gubernatorial election, where in the Republican primary contest incumbent governor Doug Ducey was trying to fend off a challenge from former Secretary of State of Arizona Ken Bennett. In May 2018, some media reports stated that Ducey was planning on naming McCain if the seat became vacant.[124] To this, Bennett, who was seeking to capitalize on the dissatisfaction that some conservatives in the state had long had with the long-time senator, stated, "I promise I will not appoint Cindy McCain to US Senate as Gov of AZ."[125] For his part, Ducey refused to publicly speak about the possibility.[124]

 
Accepting an award on her husband's behalf in April 2018 at Grand Canyon National Park

By 2018, McCain's net worth was estimated to be at least $200 million, with most of it still due to her share of Hensley & Co.[126] In addition the couple owned properties in Phoenix, Sedona, the San Diego area, and in Virginia, although some properties were sold off in 2017.[126]

McCain's attitude towards President Trump took another negative turn in February 2018, following repeated public criticism by the chief executive of her husband's nay vote that had doomed the so-called "Skinny repeal" effort to dismantle Obamacare.[120] McCain said: "I think the president fails to understand this, but more importantly, in my own – from my own feeling, we need more compassion, we need more empathy, we need more togetherness in terms of working together. We don't need more bullying, and I'm tired of it."[120] In July 2018 McCain issued a public statement one year after her husband's initial prognosis, saying that "Though this diagnosis has brought many challenges, our hearts are nevertheless filled with gratitude" towards caregivers, colleagues, and friends.[127]

 
McCain mourns over her husband's casket as he lies in state at the Arizona State Capitol.

John McCain died at age 81 on August 25, 2018.[128] She was present at, and later expressed gratitude for, the elaborate services for her husband, which involved lying in state in the rotunda at the Arizona State Capitol, a service at the North Phoenix Baptist Church, lying in state in the United States Capitol rotunda in Washington, a service at the Washington National Cathedral, and finally burial at the United States Naval Academy Cemetery.[129]

Once it became time, McCain reportedly indicated that she was not interested in being appointed to her husband's Senate seat, as personal participation in electoral politics did not appeal to her.[120] As one former aide stated, "It is a mistake to understand the McCains as a political family. They're a military family first and a political family second."[120] Nonetheless, she still wielded some influence in terms of who would be picked.[120] On September 4, Ducey – who had by this time easily won the Republican gubernatorial primary – appointed former Arizona senator Jon Kyl to the seat, in a choice that was satisfactory to all factions within the state Republican party.[130] McCain referred to Kyl as "a dear friend of mine and John's. It's a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona."[130]

Subsequent activities edit

Following her husband's death, McCain moved back to her childhood neighborhood.[7] She became chair of the McCain Institute's board of trustees.[131] She also joined the family's #ActsofCivility campaign, with the aim of encouraging people to interact with those they disagree with.[131]

In February 2019, she faced backlash after making claims on KTAR-FM that she saw human trafficking at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Police rejected her claims, stating that there was "no evidence of criminal conduct or child endangerment". She later apologized in a tweet and praised police officers.[132]

 
McCain giving a prize at the Halifax International Security Forum, 2019

She continued to be critical of the state of American politics. In September 2019, she declaimed the Republican Party as "excluding people for the wrong reasons" and said it was no longer "the party that my husband and I belonged to."[133] In contrast, with the 2020 United States presidential election underway, she praised Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden, saying that they were good friends to her and that "Joe has been a remarkable source of inspiration, kindness and just a shoulder throughout all of this."[133] In June 2020, McCain stated that she would not endorse Donald Trump's re-election campaign.[134] While not explicitly endorsing Biden at the time, McCain spoke in a video segment shown at the August 2020 Democratic National Convention about the friendship between her late husband and Biden.[135] On September 22, McCain gave her full endorsement to Biden's presidential candidacy.[136] McCain's endorsement, and the publicly poor relationship between Trump and her late husband, has been given as one of a number of reasons why Biden was able to narrowly win the 2020 United States presidential election in Arizona.[137] In doing so Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate since 1996, and only the second since 1948, to win the state.[137]

McCain was a member of the advisory board of the Biden-Harris Transition Team, which was helping to plan for the presidential transition of Joe Biden, providing counsel on women's and children's issues.[138][139] She was named to the board in September 2020, when the campaign was still underway.[138] Nonetheless, she has said that she is still a registered Republican, intends to stay that way, and hopes that the Republican Party returns to stances that she can once again support.[1]

In January 2021, McCain was censured by the Maricopa County Republican Party by a 4–1 margin in response to her support for Biden. In response, McCain tweeted that she would "continue to support candidates who put country over party and stand for the rule of law."[140] Later that month, on a resolution that passed by a wide margin, McCain was censured by the Arizona Republican Party for her support of Biden and for "leftist causes such as gay marriage and growth of the administrative state".[141] Making reference to the fact that the state party was in the habit of censuring other members deemed insufficiently conservative, including her husband several years prior, she replied, "It is a high honor to be included in a group of Arizonans who have served our state and our nation so well ... and who, like my late husband John, have been censured by the AZGOP. I'll wear this as a badge of honor."[141]

External videos
  After Words interview with Cindy McCain on Stronger, May 1, 2021, C-SPAN

McCain's account of her life with, and final days of, John McCain was published in April 2021. Titled Stronger: Courage, Hope, and Humor in My Life with John McCain and published by Crown Forum, it also contained material on the struggles she faced in her own life.[142]

United States Ambassador edit

 
Official photo as U.S. ambassador

McCain was seen by the Biden administration as a likely, or even a "must do", for an ambassadorship nomination.[143][144] In late November 2020, the possible post of United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom was mentioned in connection to her.[145] She responded to the notion of any potential nomination by saying, "In whatever way he sees fit, I would be proud and honored to serve".[143]

 
Ambassador McCain delivering the United States' opening remarks by Zoom at the Food and Agriculture Organization Council meeting, Rome, November 2021

In late May 2021, it was reported that President Biden would nominate McCain to serve as the Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture.[146][147] While McCain had a long record of work in other humanitarian activities, this was her first involvement with the issues surrounding food policy.[148] The White House officially announced her nomination on June 23, 2021.[144] On August 9, 2021, her nomination was sent to the United States Senate.[149] On September 28, 2021, her confirmation hearing was held by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; she faced largely friendly questions mixed in with personal reminiscences from the committee members regarding times spent with either McCain or her husband.[150] The committee favorably reported her nomination on October 19, 2021. The full Senate confirmed her by voice vote on October 26, 2021.[151][152]

 
Ambassador McCain in Laos, 2022

She was sworn in as ambassador on November 5, 2021.[153] She presented her credentials to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization on January 18, 2022,[154] to the International Fund for Agricultural Development on January 25, 2022,[155] and to the UN World Food Programme on January 28, 2022.[156]

A main focus of her time as ambassador was dealing with the 2022–2023 food crises.[148] Much of the emergency stemmed from the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine,[157] including the factor that about half of all grains delivered to the UN World Food Programme came from the Ukraine.[158] The invasion took place shortly after her tenure began, and she was part of a group of administration officials, include U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken, that met regularly to discuss how to keep the emergency from destabilizing areas of the world already on the edge of famine.[159] In late March 2022, she traveled to the Poland–Ukraine border to witness first-hand the refugee situation as well as to visit a food warehouse in Rzeszów.[158]

 
Ambassador McCain at a December 2022 meeting of the FAO in Rome, where she spoke about the effects of the war in Ukraine on global food security

In January 2023, McCain said that the crisis continued to be enormous, especially in Africa, and overall represented "the worst food crisis, the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II."[157] She placed much of the blame on Russia, but also pointed to there still being effects on food from the COVID-19 pandemic as well as from food speculators and the effects of climate change on agriculture.[157]

Executive Director of the World Food Programme edit

Cindy McCain was appointed on March 2, 2023 as the new Executive Director of the U.N. World Food Programme by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Qu Dongyu.[160][161] McCain succeeded David Beasley, who had served six years as executive director when his term ended on April 4, 2023.[161]

On October 22, 2023, McCain warned that the 2023 Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip could cause a humanitarian catastrophe.[162]

Awards and honors edit

McCain was inducted into the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame in 2019.[7] She also received the 2020 Heritage Award from the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry.[163] McCain received two honorary degrees in May 2019.[7] One was from her alma mater, USC,[164] while the other was from George Washington University.[165]

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External links edit

  •   Media related to Cindy McCain at Wikimedia Commons
  • Appearances on C-SPAN
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture
2021–present 		Succeeded by
TBD
Preceded by Executive Director of the World Food Programme
Taking office 2023 		Designate

February 15, 2024
cindy, mccain, cindy, mccain, née, hensley, born, 1954, american, diplomat, businesswoman, humanitarian, executive, director, world, food, programme, mccain, previously, served, ambassador, united, nations, agencies, food, agriculture, from, 2021, 2023, widow,. Cindy Lou McCain nee Hensley born May 20 1954 2 is an American diplomat businesswoman and humanitarian who is the executive director of the World Food Programme McCain previously served as U S Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture from 2021 to 2023 She is the widow of U S Senator John McCain from Arizona who was the 2008 Republican presidential nominee Cindy McCainExecutive Director of the World Food ProgrammeIncumbentAssumed office April 5 2023Secretary GeneralAntonio GuterresPreceded byDavid Beasley12th United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and AgricultureIn office November 5 2021 April 5 2023PresidentJoe BidenPreceded byKip E TomSucceeded byRodney Hunter Charge d Affairs Personal detailsBornCindy Lou Hensley 1954 05 20 May 20 1954 age 69 Phoenix Arizona U S Political partyRepublican 1 SpouseJohn McCain m 1980 died 2018 wbr Children4 including MeghanRelativesJim Hensley father EducationUniversity of Southern California BA MA Cindy McCain s voice source source McCain s opening statement at her confirmation hearing to be U S ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and AgricultureRecorded September 28 2021McCain was born and raised in Phoenix Arizona and is a 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 the couple moved to Arizona in 1981 where her husband was elected to the United States Congress the following year and reelected five more times The couple 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 Upon her father s death in 2000 she inherited majority control and became chair of Hensley amp 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 continued to be an active philanthropist and served on the boards of Operation Smile Eastern Congo Initiative CARE and HALO Trust frequently making overseas trips in conjunction with their activities During the 2010s she became prominent in the fight against human trafficking From 2017 until his death the following year she dealt with her husband s battle against glioblastoma McCain has remained visible in public life since then While herself a Republican she made a cross party endorsement of Joe Biden in the 2020 United States presidential election She was nominated to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture ambassadorship by President Biden in June 2021 and confirmed by the Senate in October 2021 Much of her tenure in that position focused on dealing with the 2022 2023 food crises largely caused by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the effects of climate change on agriculture Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Marriage and family 3 American Voluntary Medical Team 3 1 Founding and mission 3 2 Adoption 3 3 Prescription drug addiction 3 4 Aftermath 4 Role in 2000 presidential campaign 5 Between presidential campaigns 6 Role in 2008 presidential campaign 7 Subsequent activities 8 Husband s illness and death 9 Subsequent activities 10 United States Ambassador 11 Executive Director of the World Food Programme 12 Awards and honors 13 References 14 External linksEarly life and education editCindy Lou Hensley was born in Phoenix Arizona 3 to James Hensley who founded Hensley amp Co 4 and Marguerite Smitty Hensley nee Johnson 3 5 6 She has described her mother as being very much from Southern culture while her father reflected the Western lifestyle 7 She was raised as the only child of her parents second marriages 8 and grew up on Phoenix s North Central Avenue in affluent circumstances 9 10 11 Dixie Lea Burd d 2008 12 daughter of Marguerite Smith through a prior relationship was her half sister 13 as was Kathleen Hensley Portalski d 2017 14 daughter of Jim Hensley and his first wife Mary Jeanne Parks 13 15 Cindy Hensley was named Junior Rodeo Queen of Arizona in 1968 16 17 She went to Central High School 8 in Phoenix where she was named Best Dressed as a senior and graduated in 1972 9 18 Hensley enrolled at the University of Southern California 19 She joined Kappa Alpha Theta sorority as a freshman 11 20 and had many leadership roles in the house during her four years there 19 Hensley graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in education in 1976 2 19 She continued on at USC and received a Master of Arts degree in special education in 1978 2 9 There she participated in a movement therapy pilot program that led the way to a standard treatment for children with severe disabilities 21 she published the work Movement Therapy A Possible Approach in 1978 22 Declining a role in the family business 23 she worked for a year as a special education teacher of children with Down syndrome and other disabilities at Agua Fria High School in Avondale Arizona 9 3 16 21 Marriage and family edit nbsp Greeting President Ronald Reagan in 1983Hensley met John McCain in April 1979 at a military reception in Honolulu Hawaii 24 He was the U S Navy liaison officer to the United States Senate and was accompanying a group of senators heading for China 24 She was in Hawaii on a family vacation with her parents 25 Hensley was talking to Jill Biden the wife of Senator Joe Biden who suggested that she talk to McCain 26 her father made the introduction 25 He was almost 18 years her senior 27 by her later description each fudged the age they said they were to the other He made himself younger and I made myself older of course 28 He had been married to Carol McCain for 14 years and they had three children two of whom he adopted from her first marriage 29 McCain and Hensley quickly began a relationship 27 traveling between Arizona and Washington to see each other 16 John McCain then pushed to end his marriage 24 and the couple stopped cohabiting in January 1980 30 Carol McCain consented to a divorce in February 1980 24 it was finalized in April 1980 Hensley and McCain were married on May 17 1980 at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix 16 They signed a prenuptial agreement that kept most of her family s assets under her name 31 they kept their finances apart and filed separate income tax returns 31 nbsp The full McCain family in 2008 In the front row are the children with Cindy Meghan Jimmy Jack and Bridget In the back row are his children from John McCain s first marriage Andrew Douglas and Sidney Her father s business and political contacts helped her new husband to gain a foothold in Arizona politics 24 She campaigned with her husband door to door during his successful first bid for U S Congress in 1982 17 and was heavily involved in campaign strategy 11 Her wealth from an expired trust from her parents provided significant loans to the campaign 32 33 34 and helped it survive a period of early debt 35 Once her husband was elected the McCains moved to Alexandria Virginia 36 She spent two months in late 1983 writing handwritten notes on over 4 000 Christmas cards to be sent to constituents and others 36 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 37 and she grew homesick for Arizona 16 36 She had several miscarriages 16 27 She moved back to Arizona in early 1984 16 and gave birth to the couple s daughter Meghan later that year 16 She subsequently gave birth to sons John Sidney IV known as Jack in 1986 and James known as Jimmy in 1988 38 Their fourth child Bridget was adopted in 1991 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 and holidays 16 27 28 In his absence she organized elaborate fund raisers for him and expanded their home 37 In April 1986 McCain and her father invested 359 100 in a shopping center project with Phoenix banker Charles Keating 16 This combined with her role as a bookkeeper who later had difficulty finding receipts for family trips on Keating s jet 23 caused complications for her husband during the Keating Five scandal when he was being examined for his role regarding oversight of Keating s bank 16 American Voluntary Medical Team editFounding and mission edit In 1988 inspired by a vacation that she took four years earlier to substandard medical facilities on Truk Lagoon 16 39 McCain founded the American Voluntary Medical Team AVMT 2 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 developing countries such as Micronesia Vietnam before relations were normalized between them and the U S 39 Kuwait arriving five days after the conclusion of the Gulf War 39 Zaire to help refugees from the Rwandan genocide 37 Iraq Nicaragua India Bangladesh and El Salvador 10 40 41 42 43 She led 55 of these missions over the next seven years 21 each of which were at least two weeks in duration 43 AVMT also supplied treatment to poor sick children around the world 44 In 1993 McCain and the AVMT were honored with an award from Food for the Hungry 10 Adoption edit In 1991 the AVMT went to Dhaka Bangladesh to provide assistance following the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone 41 While at Mother Teresa s Dhaka orphanage the Sisters of Charity of Mother Teresa Children s Home 45 McCain met two infant girls she felt needed to be brought to the United States for medical treatment 27 She decided to adopt one of the girls later named Bridget with her husband readily agreeing 10 the adoption became final in 1993 46 She helped coordinate the adoption of the other little girl for family friend Wes Gullett 10 Prescription drug addiction edit nbsp At the christening of USS John S McCain September 1992 with daughter Meghan son Jack and husband John at the Bath Iron Works shipyard Bath Maine In 1989 McCain developed an addiction to Percocet and Vicodin 47 She initially took the opioid painkillers to alleviate pain after two spinal surgeries for ruptured discs 48 49 She also used the drugs to ease emotional stress during the Keating Five scandal 47 The addiction progressed to where she was taking upwards of twenty pills a day 16 and she resorted to having an AVMT physician write illegal prescriptions in the names of three AVMT employees without their knowledge 42 48 In 1992 her parents staged an intervention to force her to get help 23 she told her husband about her problem and subsequently attended a drug treatment facility where she began outpatient sessions to begin recovery from drug addiction 47 In 1993 she underwent surgery which resolved her back pain 47 50 In January 1993 Tom Gosinski an AVMT employee who had discovered her illegal drug use was terminated on budgetary grounds 51 Subsequently he tipped off the Drug Enforcement Administration about her prior actions and a federal investigation ensued 48 51 McCain s defense team led by her husband 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 10 48 51 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 48 47 In response Dowd characterized this request as blackmail and requested Maricopa County attorney Rick Romley to investigate Gosinski for extortion 48 51 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 47 and both Gosinski s lawsuit and the extortion investigation against him were dropped 48 Before prosecutors were able to publicly disclose her addiction to pain medication McCain preemptively revealed the story to reporters stating 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 10 48 47 Aftermath edit AVMT concluded its activities in 1995 in the wake of the McCain prescription narcotics controversy 40 48 That year McCain founded a new organization the Hensley Family Foundation which donates funds to children s programs nationally as well as in Arizona 10 She was largely a stay at home mom during the balance of the 1990s 23 She also held positions as vice president director and vice chair of Hensley amp Co 34 35 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 52 53 The condition frequently resulted in visits to an emergency room 53 54 Her attacks were caused by many different migraine triggers and she tried many different treatments 54 Role in 2000 presidential campaign editAlthough wary of the media 10 and still having no love for the political world 55 McCain was active in her husband s eventually unsuccessful campaign for President of the United States in 2000 23 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 17 McCain was upset by the notorious smear tactics 56 57 against her husband in the South Carolina primary that year These included allegations involving her adopted daughter Bridget that she found despicable 23 as well as insinuations that McCain herself was currently a drug addict 57 58 Though deeply wounded by the attacks for a long time 59 McCain eventually forgave those responsible 17 She was chosen as the chair of the Arizona delegation to the 2000 Republican National Convention 21 Between presidential campaigns edit nbsp Cindy and John McCain at a Naval Sea Cadet Corps graduation Fort Dix New Jersey July 2001In 2000 she became chair of the now 300 million a year Hensley amp Co 60 61 following her father s death 50 It is one of the largest Anheuser Busch beer distributors in the United States 62 Together McCain her children and one of John McCain s children from his first marriage own 68 percent of the company 63 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 64 65 She does not have operational control of Hensley and Anheuser Busch considers her to be an absentee owner 66 By 2007 she had an annual income of over 400 000 from Hensley and an estimated net worth of 100 million 31 She also owned at least 2 7 million worth of shares of Anheuser Busch stock 66 67 With her children she owns a minority stake in the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team 35 68 McCain became actively involved with Operation Smile in 2001 69 taking parts in its medical missions to Morocco Vietnam and India 69 She was honored by the organization in 2005 69 and sits on its board of directors 40 McCain joined the board of directors of CARE in 2005 40 She is on the board of the HALO Trust 40 and has visited operations to remove landmines in Cambodia Sri Lanka Mozambique and Angola 21 She makes financial contributions to these organizations via her family trust 39 and views her role as watching them in the field to ensure they are frugal and their money is being spent effectively 65 On occasion she has criticized foreign regimes on human rights grounds such as Myanmar s military junta 70 In April 2004 McCain had a near fatal stroke caused by high blood pressure 50 71 although she was still able to attend some events 37 After several months of physical therapy to overcome leg and arm limitations she made a mostly full recovery although she still had some short term memory loss and difficulties in writing 50 She owns a home in Coronado California next to the Hotel del Coronado 65 her family had vacationed in Coronado growing up and she has gone there for recuperation and family get togethers 65 She or her family own other residential and commercial real estate in California Arizona and Virginia 35 and including rental properties McCain herself owns ten homes and part of three office complexes 66 72 73 She is an amateur pilot and race car driver 16 After her stroke she trained in the motorsport of drifting and precision driving 74 75 Role in 2008 presidential campaign edit nbsp Visiting President Bush at the White House on March 5 2008She was active and visible in her husband s second presidential campaign during 2007 and 2008 17 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 59 She eventually supported her husband in his goals but defined her own campaign roles 59 she frequently returned to Arizona to attend to domestic duties 65 or interrupted campaigning for her overseas charitable work 39 70 She preferred to travel with her husband and introduce him rather than act as a campaign surrogate with a separate schedule 37 76 She wore her hair in a fashionable but severe style and was sometimes seen with an unsmiling countenance in her appearances 55 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 77 The campaign exacerbated her migraine headaches and she sometimes had to wear dark glasses to shield herself from bright lights 52 54 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 78 McCain stated that the American public wanted a First Lady of the United States who would tend toward a traditional role in that position 79 She would not attend Cabinet meetings 65 but would continue her involvement in overseas non profit organizations and would urge Americans to do the same globally or locally 65 She envisioned herself as a possible figurehead for humanitarian work along the lines of Diana Princess of Wales 80 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 81 nbsp Addressing the delegates on the final night of the 2008 Republican National ConventionShe made statements critical of the Bush administration for not deploying enough troops during the Iraq War 17 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 39 82 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 83 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 84 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 85 McCain faced media scrutiny about her wealth spending habits and financial obligations 73 86 87 She initially declined to release her separate income tax returns saying that it was a privacy issue and she would not release the returns even if she became First Lady 88 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 deductions and more than 1 7 million paid in federal income taxes 89 The campaign said that any decisions about how to handle her role in Hensley amp Co if she became First Lady would not be made until that time 63 While she stood to gain a considerable profit from the agreed upon acquisition of Anheuser Busch by the Belgian company InBev 67 90 she was initially under some political pressure to help oppose the deal and keep Anheuser Busch under American ownership 91 nbsp Six days before the general election loss the McCains campaign together in Elyria Ohio In June 2008 a Rasmussen Reports poll found that 49 percent of voters viewed McCain favorably and 29 percent unfavorably 92 while an ABC News The Washington Post poll found figures of 39 percent and 25 percent respectively 93 Her style and fashion sense was the subject of much media scrutiny 94 95 McCain was compared to former first lady Nancy Reagan 94 due to both her style and wardrobe 96 97 as well as her demeanor 98 Early in the campaign some recipes attributed to McCain turned out to be copied from other sources the campaign attributed the problem to an error by an intern 99 100 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 101 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 102 In October 2008 she increased the intensity of her public remarks against Obama s candidacy 103 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 104 The stresses of the campaign caused the 5 foot 7 inch 1 70 m McCain s weight to fall under 100 pounds 45 kg 52 On November 4 2008 she fought back tears in an appearance as the McCain campaign reached its final day and subsequent loss to Obama 105 Subsequent activities editAfter the election McCain was approached about appearing on Dancing with the Stars She seriously considered participating but according to her husband was concerned that her surgically replaced knee would not be able to withstand the rigors of the competition 106 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 107 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 107 nbsp McCain testifying before Congress in March 2011She expressed support for LGBT rights by appearing alongside her daughter Meghan at an April 2009 convention of the Log Cabin Republicans 108 and posing for the NOH8 Campaign a gay rights project opposed to California Proposition 8 a ballot measure banning same sex marriage 109 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 110 However 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 111 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 others with the condition 52 54 During her husband s eventually successful 2010 senatorial re election campaign she rarely made public appearances 112 McCain appeared in March 2011 alongside Eastern Congo Initiative founder Ben Affleck to testify before a panel of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on behalf of 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 113 She has noted the difficulty of getting attention to some of the topics she feels most strongly about 114 at a Futures Without Violence summit in 2012 she said When I talk about rape in Congo people turn their backs and run especially the men 115 nbsp McCain speaking at an event at The McCain Institute in November 2013In late 2013 and early 2014 McCain used the occasion of Super Bowl XLVIII to highlight her concerns about sex trafficking in the United States an issue that she had begun working on in conjunction with The McCain Institute 116 117 She campaigned for legislation to address the problem at both the federal and state levels 117 She also served as co chair of the Arizona Governor Jan Brewer s Task Force on Human Trafficking 116 In April 2015 during the Sedona Forum McCain and actress Demi Moore discussed ways to end sex trafficking 118 Later in that year she staged appearances with Heidi Heitkamp Democratic Senator from North Dakota to discuss human trafficking in that state and elsewhere 114 She said of trafficking Everybody has seen it they just didn t know what they were looking at 114 She praised Obama and Congress for passage of the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 and together with Malika Saada Saar executive director of the Human Rights Project for Girls started the No Such Thing Campaign to end the use of the term child prostitute saying there are only victims and survivors of child rape 119 During the 2016 United States presidential election McCain and her husband ended up not voting for the Republican nominee in the wake of the Access Hollywood controversy 120 Nonetheless following the change in administration in Washington in May 2017 it was reported that McCain was under consideration for a prominent role at the U S Department of State possibly focusing on issues related to human trafficking 121 In June 2017 there were further reports that after extensive recruiting by President Trump following a recommendation from Ivanka Trump she had agreed to become an Ambassador at Large dealing with matters of human trafficking refugees and humanitarian aid 122 But no announcement ever came along the lines of this report Husband s illness and death edit nbsp The John and Cindy McCain residence in Phoenix ArizonaIn July 2017 her husband was diagnosed with a glioblastoma an aggressive brain tumor 28 She issued a public statement saying that We as a family will face the next hurdle together One thing I do know is he is the toughest person I know He is my hero and I love him with all my heart 28 Senator McCain underwent treatment and after December 2017 no longer went to Washington D C remaining in Arizona 123 The severity of her husband s illness led to the possibility that he would not be able to finish his term in office and that the Governor of Arizona would have to appoint a successor until a special election could be held There is a tradition in such situations for politically involved spouses to be named as replacements a practice known as widow s succession 123 The possibility became an issue in the 2018 Arizona gubernatorial election where in the Republican primary contest incumbent governor Doug Ducey was trying to fend off a challenge from former Secretary of State of Arizona Ken Bennett In May 2018 some media reports stated that Ducey was planning on naming McCain if the seat became vacant 124 To this Bennett who was seeking to capitalize on the dissatisfaction that some conservatives in the state had long had with the long time senator stated I promise I will not appoint Cindy McCain to US Senate as Gov of AZ 125 For his part Ducey refused to publicly speak about the possibility 124 nbsp Accepting an award on her husband s behalf in April 2018 at Grand Canyon National ParkBy 2018 McCain s net worth was estimated to be at least 200 million with most of it still due to her share of Hensley amp Co 126 In addition the couple owned properties in Phoenix Sedona the San Diego area and in Virginia although some properties were sold off in 2017 126 McCain s attitude towards President Trump took another negative turn in February 2018 following repeated public criticism by the chief executive of her husband s nay vote that had doomed the so called Skinny repeal effort to dismantle Obamacare 120 McCain said I think the president fails to understand this but more importantly in my own from my own feeling we need more compassion we need more empathy we need more togetherness in terms of working together We don t need more bullying and I m tired of it 120 In July 2018 McCain issued a public statement one year after her husband s initial prognosis saying that Though this diagnosis has brought many challenges our hearts are nevertheless filled with gratitude towards caregivers colleagues and friends 127 nbsp McCain mourns over her husband s casket as he lies in state at the Arizona State Capitol John McCain died at age 81 on August 25 2018 128 She was present at and later expressed gratitude for the elaborate services for her husband which involved lying in state in the rotunda at the Arizona State Capitol a service at the North Phoenix Baptist Church lying in state in the United States Capitol rotunda in Washington a service at the Washington National Cathedral and finally burial at the United States Naval Academy Cemetery 129 Once it became time McCain reportedly indicated that she was not interested in being appointed to her husband s Senate seat as personal participation in electoral politics did not appeal to her 120 As one former aide stated It is a mistake to understand the McCains as a political family They re a military family first and a political family second 120 Nonetheless she still wielded some influence in terms of who would be picked 120 On September 4 Ducey who had by this time easily won the Republican gubernatorial primary appointed former Arizona senator Jon Kyl to the seat in a choice that was satisfactory to all factions within the state Republican party 130 McCain referred to Kyl as a dear friend of mine and John s It s a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona 130 Subsequent activities editFollowing her husband s death McCain moved back to her childhood neighborhood 7 She became chair of the McCain Institute s board of trustees 131 She also joined the family s ActsofCivility campaign with the aim of encouraging people to interact with those they disagree with 131 In February 2019 she faced backlash after making claims on KTAR FM that she saw human trafficking at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Police rejected her claims stating that there was no evidence of criminal conduct or child endangerment She later apologized in a tweet and praised police officers 132 nbsp McCain giving a prize at the Halifax International Security Forum 2019She continued to be critical of the state of American politics In September 2019 she declaimed the Republican Party as excluding people for the wrong reasons and said it was no longer the party that my husband and I belonged to 133 In contrast with the 2020 United States presidential election underway she praised Democratic presidential front runner Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden saying that they were good friends to her and that Joe has been a remarkable source of inspiration kindness and just a shoulder throughout all of this 133 In June 2020 McCain stated that she would not endorse Donald Trump s re election campaign 134 While not explicitly endorsing Biden at the time McCain spoke in a video segment shown at the August 2020 Democratic National Convention about the friendship between her late husband and Biden 135 On September 22 McCain gave her full endorsement to Biden s presidential candidacy 136 McCain s endorsement and the publicly poor relationship between Trump and her late husband has been given as one of a number of reasons why Biden was able to narrowly win the 2020 United States presidential election in Arizona 137 In doing so Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate since 1996 and only the second since 1948 to win the state 137 McCain was a member of the advisory board of the Biden Harris Transition Team which was helping to plan for the presidential transition of Joe Biden providing counsel on women s and children s issues 138 139 She was named to the board in September 2020 when the campaign was still underway 138 Nonetheless she has said that she is still a registered Republican intends to stay that way and hopes that the Republican Party returns to stances that she can once again support 1 In January 2021 McCain was censured by the Maricopa County Republican Party by a 4 1 margin in response to her support for Biden In response McCain tweeted that she would continue to support candidates who put country over party and stand for the rule of law 140 Later that month on a resolution that passed by a wide margin McCain was censured by the Arizona Republican Party for her support of Biden and for leftist causes such as gay marriage and growth of the administrative state 141 Making reference to the fact that the state party was in the habit of censuring other members deemed insufficiently conservative including her husband several years prior she replied It is a high honor to be included in a group of Arizonans who have served our state and our nation so well and who like my late husband John have been censured by the AZGOP I ll wear this as a badge of honor 141 External videos nbsp After Words interview with Cindy McCain on Stronger May 1 2021 C SPANMcCain s account of her life with and final days of John McCain was published in April 2021 Titled Stronger Courage Hope and Humor in My Life with John McCain and published by Crown Forum it also contained material on the struggles she faced in her own life 142 United States Ambassador edit nbsp Official photo as U S ambassadorMcCain was seen by the Biden administration as a likely or even a must do for an ambassadorship nomination 143 144 In late November 2020 the possible post of United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom was mentioned in connection to her 145 She responded to the notion of any potential nomination by saying In whatever way he sees fit I would be proud and honored to serve 143 nbsp Ambassador McCain delivering the United States opening remarks by Zoom at the Food and Agriculture Organization Council meeting Rome November 2021In late May 2021 it was reported that President Biden would nominate McCain to serve as the Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture 146 147 While McCain had a long record of work in other humanitarian activities this was her first involvement with the issues surrounding food policy 148 The White House officially announced her nomination on June 23 2021 144 On August 9 2021 her nomination was sent to the United States Senate 149 On September 28 2021 her confirmation hearing was held by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee she faced largely friendly questions mixed in with personal reminiscences from the committee members regarding times spent with either McCain or her husband 150 The committee favorably reported her nomination on October 19 2021 The full Senate confirmed her by voice vote on October 26 2021 151 152 nbsp Ambassador McCain in Laos 2022She was sworn in as ambassador on November 5 2021 153 She presented her credentials to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization on January 18 2022 154 to the International Fund for Agricultural Development on January 25 2022 155 and to the UN World Food Programme on January 28 2022 156 A main focus of her time as ambassador was dealing with the 2022 2023 food crises 148 Much of the emergency stemmed from the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine 157 including the factor that about half of all grains delivered to the UN World Food Programme came from the Ukraine 158 The invasion took place shortly after her tenure began and she was part of a group of administration officials include U S Secretary of State Tony Blinken that met regularly to discuss how to keep the emergency from destabilizing areas of the world already on the edge of famine 159 In late March 2022 she traveled to the Poland Ukraine border to witness first hand the refugee situation as well as to visit a food warehouse in Rzeszow 158 nbsp Ambassador McCain at a December 2022 meeting of the FAO in Rome where she spoke about the effects of the war in Ukraine on global food securityIn January 2023 McCain said that the crisis continued to be enormous especially in Africa and overall represented the worst food crisis the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II 157 She placed much of the blame on Russia but also pointed to there still being effects on food from the COVID 19 pandemic as well as from food speculators and the effects of climate change on agriculture 157 Executive Director of the World Food Programme editCindy McCain was appointed on March 2 2023 as the new Executive Director of the U N World Food Programme by United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Food and Agriculture Organization Director General Qu Dongyu 160 161 McCain succeeded David Beasley who had served six years as executive director when his term ended on April 4 2023 161 On October 22 2023 McCain warned that the 2023 Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip could cause a humanitarian catastrophe 162 Awards and honors editMcCain was inducted into the Arizona Women s Hall of Fame in 2019 7 She also received the 2020 Heritage Award from the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry 163 McCain received two honorary degrees in May 2019 7 One was from her alma mater USC 164 while the other was from George Washington University 165 References edit a b Campbell Katie October 30 2020 Cindy McCain Predicts New Republican Party Post Election KJZZ TV a b c d Bio of Cindy Hensley McCain Chicago Tribune April 15 2008 Retrieved April 22 2008 permanent dead link a b c Bob Dart March 9 2008 As candidate s wife Cindy McCain finds herself in spotlight Austin American Statesman Archived from the original on March 12 2008 Retrieved March 26 2008 Hensley amp Company Company Profile Yahoo Finance Archived from the original on January 12 2008 Retrieved January 11 2008 Sen John McCain s mother in law dies The Washington Post October 22 2006 Retrieved November 14 2006 Ancestry of Cindy McCain wargs com Retrieved July 5 2008 a b c d Roberts Roxanne May 9 2019 Keeper of the flame Cindy McCain s life without John Stars and Stripes The Washington Post Archived from the original on September 5 2020 a b Bobbie Kyle January 11 2008 10 Things You Didn t Know About Cindy McCain USA Today Archived from the original on January 8 2008 Retrieved January 11 2008 a b c d Levy Ariel September 15 2008 The Lonesome Trail The New Yorker Retrieved September 10 2008 a b c d e f g h i Tapper Jake July 2 1999 I m not Hillary Salon Archived from the original on November 3 2007 Retrieved April 4 2007 a b c Scheiber Noam September 10 2008 Made Man The New Republic Retrieved February 19 2020 Cindy McCain s half sister dies Arizona Daily Star October 10 2008 Retrieved October 20 2022 a b Argetsinger Amy Roberts Roxanne August 20 2008 Sibling Revelation An Overlooked Branch of Cindy McCain s Family Tree The Washington Post Retrieved August 21 2008 Kathleen Anne Portalski The Arizona Republic January 7 2018 Retrieved October 20 2022 Robbins Ted August 18 2008 Cindy McCain s Half Sister Angry She s Hidden National Public Radio Retrieved August 18 2008 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Holly Bailey June 30 2008 In Search of Cindy McCain Newsweek Archived from the original on June 27 2008 Retrieved June 23 2008 a b c d e f Steinhauer Jennifer June 29 2007 Mrs McCain Is Speaking Up in a Steely Tone The New York Times Retrieved January 12 2008 Association announces honorary co chairs PDF Central High Alumni Echoes October November 2003 Archived from the original PDF on May 27 2008 Retrieved January 11 2008 a b c Taba Kimberly December 9 1999 Cindy McCain on campus today Senator s wife returns to alma mater to campaign for his presidential election Daily Trojan Famous Thetas Kappa Alpha Theta Omicron Chapter University of Southern California Archived from the original on July 24 2008 Retrieved February 8 2008 a b c d e About Cindy McCain John McCain 2008 Archived from the original on January 13 2008 Retrieved January 11 2008 Hensley Cindy Lou 1978 Movement Therapy A Possible Approach University of Southern California Order number 2576H permanent dead link a b c d e f Melinda Henneberger March 2 2000 Unexpectedly Cindy McCain Basks in a New Political Role The New York Times Retrieved January 12 2008 a b c d e Kristof Nicholas February 27 2000 P O W to Power Broker A Chapter Most Telling The New York Times Retrieved April 22 2007 a b Carlson Margaret September 23 2020 Why Cindy McCain Endorsed Joe Biden Town and Country Cindy McCain looks at the future of the Republican Party We have got to overcome this Sunday Morning CBS News February 21 2021 a b c d e Nancy Collins July 2007 Cindy McCain Myth vs Reality Harper s Bazaar Archived from the original on January 31 2008 Retrieved January 11 2008 a b c d McAfee Tierney July 20 2017 Inside John McCain s Love Story with Wife Cindy He Is My Hero and I Love Him with All My Heart People Steinhauer Jennifer December 27 2007 Bridging 4 Decades a Large Close Knit Brood The New York Times Serrano Richard A Vartabedian Ralph July 11 2008 McCain s broken marriage and fractured Reagan friendship Los Angeles Times Retrieved July 11 2008 a b c McCain Releases His Tax Returns CBS News Associated Press April 18 2008 Retrieved April 24 2008 Dan Nowicki Bill Muller March 1 2007 John McCain Report Arizona the early years The Arizona Republic Retrieved November 21 2007 Bill Muller Chapter IV Arizona the early years Archived from the original on December 12 2001 Retrieved February 8 2008 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link The Arizona Republic June 5 1999 via Archive org In 1982 the McCains lent 169 000 of their own money to the campaign In the end including the personal loans McCain would raise more than 550 000 to win the seat a b Frantz Douglas February 21 2000 A Beer Baron and a Powerful Publisher Put McCain on a Political Path The New York Times p A14 Retrieved November 29 2006 Though he had little money of his own because he had been a career naval officer his wife s fortune allowed him to lend 167 000 to the campaign which was permissible under campaign laws then a b c d Sharon Theimer April 3 2008 Beer heiress could be next first lady NBC News Associated Press Retrieved April 29 2008 a b c Romano Lois March 2 2000 Out of the Fire Politics Calls Ex POW Turns Washington Insider The Washington Post permanent dead link a b c d e Kantor Jodi Halbfinger David M October 17 2008 Behind McCain Outsider in Capital Wanting Back In The New York Times Retrieved October 18 2008 Kirkpatrick David D John McCain The New York Times Retrieved March 28 2008 a b c d e f Jill Zuckman April 15 2008 The contrasts of Cindy McCain Chicago Tribune Retrieved April 23 2008 permanent dead link a b c d e CARE Board Member Biography Cindy Hensley McCain CARE Archived from the original on November 17 2006 Retrieved November 14 2006 a b McCain Cindy Hensley Gina Bridgeman 1998 One Life at a Time In Canfield Hansen Hawthorne Shimoff eds A Second Chicken Soup for the Woman s Soul 101 More Stories Health Communications ISBN 1 55874 621 8 a b Alexander Paul 2002 Man of the People The Life of John McCain John Wiley amp Sons pp 162 166 ISBN 0 471 22829 X a b Timberg Robert 1999 John McCain An American Odyssey New York Touchstone Books pp 180 181 ISBN 0 684 86794 X Feinberg Barbara Silberdick 2000 John McCain Serving His Country Millbrook Press ISBN 0 7613 1974 3 p 35 McDowall Angus Abdullah Al Muyid September 6 2008 Bridget McCain s Bangladesh orphanage revealed The Daily Telegraph London Retrieved February 14 2009 Human Dignity amp the Sanctity of Life John McCain 2008 Archived from the original on February 22 2008 Retrieved December 27 2007 a b c d e f g Dan Nowicki Bill Muller March 1 2007 John McCain Report Overcoming scandal moving on The Arizona Republic Retrieved November 23 2007 a b c d e f g h i Kindy Kimberly September 12 2008 A Tangled Story of Addiction The Washington Post Retrieved September 12 2008 Bill Delaney November 22 1999 Cindy McCain stays on an even keel CNN com Retrieved January 12 2008 a b c d Alexander Paul September 2007 Cindy McCain at Full Throttle More Archived from the original on February 11 2008 Retrieved January 30 2008 a b c d Silverman Amy October 18 1999 How Cindy McCain was outed for drug addiction Salon Retrieved September 15 2007 a b c d McNeil Liz September 2 2009 Cindy McCain s Secret Struggle with Migraines People Retrieved September 8 2009 a b Doyle Jessica Ryen September 9 2009 Cindy McCain Breaks Her Silence on Migraine Disability Fox News Retrieved November 17 2009 a b c d Collins Lauren September 21 2009 The Talk of the Town Not Tonight Dept Head First The New Yorker Vol 85 no 29 pp 36 37 Retrieved January 23 2010 a b Thomas Evan 2009 A Long Time Coming The Inspiring Combative 2008 Campaign and the Historic Election of Barack Obama New York PublicAffairs pp 34 35 ISBN 978 1 58648 607 5 Dan Nowicki Bill Muller March 1 2007 John McCain Report The maverick runs The Arizona Republic Retrieved December 27 2007 a b Jennifer Steinhauer October 19 2007 Confronting Ghosts of 2000 in South Carolina The New York Times Retrieved January 7 2008 Carney James July 16 2008 Frenemies The McCain Bush Dance Time Archived from the original on July 17 2008 Retrieved July 22 2008 a b c Heilemann John Halperin Mark 2010 Game Change Obama and the Clintons McCain and Palin and the Race of a Lifetime New York HarperCollins p 276 ISBN 978 0 06 173363 5 Jennifer Rubin May 25 2007 Cindy McCain s Straight Talk ABC News Retrieved January 12 2008 About Us Our People Hensley amp Co Archived from the original on October 20 2006 Retrieved November 14 2006 About Hensley Hensley amp Co Archived from the original on May 29 2008 Retrieved July 8 2008 a b Ralph Vartabedian June 22 2008 McCain could have a conflict brewing Los Angeles Times Archived from the original on June 26 2008 Retrieved June 23 2008 Dawn Gilbertson January 23 2007 McCain his wealth tied to wife s family beer business The Arizona Republic Retrieved February 27 2009 a b c d e f g Tom Blair August 2007 Cindy McCain San Diego Magazine Archived from the original on August 12 2011 Retrieved March 8 2008 a b c Halbfinger David M August 22 2008 For McCains a Public Path but Private Wealth The New York Times Retrieved August 21 2008 a b Jonathan D Salant Kristin Jensen June 13 2008 Cindy McCain May Reap Benefits of Anheuser Busch Bid Bloomberg News Retrieved June 26 2008 Meier Barry April 19 2008 McCain Releases His Tax Return but Not His Wife s The New York Times a b c Operation Smile to Honor Cindy McCain PDF Press release Operation Smile September 12 2005 Archived from the original PDF on October 29 2008 Retrieved January 12 2008 a b Cindy McCain criticizes Myanmar s leaders NBC News Associated Press June 19 2008 Retrieved June 25 2008 Villa Judi April 17 2004 Cindy McCain goes home full recovery is expected The Arizona Republic Vogel Kenneth August 21 2008 McCain family owns 8 properties The Politico Retrieved August 21 2008 a b Suzanne Smalley Andrew Murr Mark Hosenball Nathan Dinsdale July 7 2008 Mrs McCain San Diego County Would Like a Word Newsweek Archived from the original on July 2 2008 Retrieved July 1 2008 Picker David September 5 2008 Cindy McCain takes the wheel in her own race ESPN Retrieved January 16 2024 Evans Scott September 10 2008 Cindy McCain Drifter Motor Trend Retrieved January 16 2024 Baer Susan September 1 2008 Michelle Vs Cindy Washingtonian Foreign Our August 15 2008 Cindy McCain braves campaign handshake strain The Daily Telegraph London Retrieved August 15 2008 Heilemann and Halperin Game Change pp 279 281 Richard Ruelas December 13 2007 Cindy McCain Caring campaigning and coping The Arizona Republic Retrieved January 12 2008 Cindy McCain inspired by Diana The Daily Telegraph London June 26 2008 Archived from the original on April 21 2013 Retrieved June 26 2008 Montana College Program That Aids Soldiers Families Featured On NBC Nightly News University of Montana March 25 2009 Retrieved April 16 2009 dead link Balz Dan Johnson Haynes 2009 The Battle for America 2008 The Story of an Extraordinary Election New York Viking Penguin p 255 ISBN 978 0 670 02111 6 Heilemann and Halperin Game Change pp 325 326 Cindy McCain takes Michelle Obama to task Newsday February 19 2008 Libby Quaid February 21 2008 Cindy McCain Like Others Stands by Man USA Today Associated Press Retrieved February 21 2008 Powell Ronald W July 1 2008 McCain s wife avoids default on property taxes The San Diego Union Tribune Archived from the original on September 29 2008 Retrieved July 2 2008 Vogel Kenneth P July 2 2008 Cindy s fortune An asset and a liability The Politico Retrieved July 2 2008 Cindy McCain I ll never release my tax returns USA Today Associated Press May 8 2008 Retrieved May 8 2008 Kuhnhenn Jim May 23 2008 Cindy McCain had 6 million income in 2006 NBC News Associated Press Retrieved February 11 2009 David M Halbfinger July 15 2008 Wife s Profit Worth a Toast The New York Times Retrieved July 23 2008 Michael O Brien June 25 2008 Budweiser deal puts political pressure on McCain campaign The Hill Retrieved June 26 2008 Michelle Obama Viewed More Unfavorably Than Cindy McCain Poll Finds Fox News June 11 2008 Retrieved June 17 2008 Gary Langer June 18 2008 Battle of the Spouses A Bit Better for Obama ABC News Retrieved June 18 2008 a b Callahan Maureen June 5 2008 Fashion First New York Post Retrieved September 24 2008 Fisher Luchina September 4 2008 Politics of Fashion Styles of McCain Obama Palin ABC News Retrieved September 24 2008 Helms Marissa September 4 2008 Delegates put Cindy McCain s style at the head of the classy MinnPost com Archived from the original on September 13 2008 Retrieved September 24 2008 Fashion Forward Michelle Obama vs Cindy McCain Who s Got the Edge When It Comes to Style Fox News June 9 2008 Retrieved September 24 2008 Macintyre Ben June 26 2008 Cindy McCain Is John too old Oh my gosh no he wears me out The Times London Retrieved September 24 2008 McCain site recipes really Food Network s United Press International April 15 2008 Archived from the original on May 10 2008 Retrieved April 15 2008 Suzanne Goldenberg April 16 2008 Recipes removed from McCain campaign website The Guardian London Retrieved May 1 2008 The recipes were for ahi tuna with Napa cabbage salad crab scampi with whole wheat pasta pasta with turkey sausage and passion fruit mousse Laura Bush on Gustav Americans are here to do what we can CNN September 1 2008 Retrieved September 6 2008 DeMillo Andrew September 4 2008 Cindy McCain praises husband as leader father Seattle Post Intelligencer Retrieved September 6 2008 dead link Martin Jonathan October 17 2008 An aggressive Cindy reprises pride in country The Politico Retrieved October 18 2008 Heilemann and Halperin Game Change p 421 Parnes Amie November 5 2008 Ignoring the inevitable The Politico Retrieved November 5 2008 John McCain Confirms that Cindy McCain Rejected DWTS Offer Reality Blurred January 23 2009 Retrieved January 23 2009 a b Cindy McCain resumes international aid work International Herald Tribune Associated Press January 28 2009 Retrieved January 30 2009 Andrew Mike April 24 2009 Meghan McCain and Steve Schmidt challenge old GOP Seattle Gay News Archived from the original on April 28 2009 Retrieved August 19 2009 Lowy Joan January 20 2010 McCain s wife daughter back gay marriage movement The Washington Post Associated Press Archived from the original on January 22 2010 Parker Ashley November 12 2010 Cindy McCain Calls for Repeal of Don t Ask The New York Times Mandell Nina November 13 2010 Cindy McCain tweets support of John McCain s standing on Don t Ask Don t Tell despite recent video New York Daily News Zeleny Jeff March 26 2010 Differences Set Aside Palin Lends McCain Aid The New York Times Retrieved March 27 2010 Don t cut aid to DRC Affleck The Times South Africa South African Press Association Agence France Presse March 9 2011 Retrieved May 20 2011 a b c Sheeler Andrew June 26 2015 Heitkamp Cindy McCain visit Bismarck to talk trafficking The Bismarck Tribune Hudson Valerie M Leidl Patricia 2015 The Hillary Doctrine Sex and American Foreign Policy New York Columbia University Press pp 322 372n ISBN 978 0 231 16492 4 a b Nowicki Dan November 22 2013 Christie Cindy McCain discuss fight against human trafficking The Arizona Republic Retrieved February 8 2014 a b McCalmont Lucy February 2 2014 Cindy McCain s crusade Politico Retrieved February 8 2014 The Sedona Forum 2015 April 24 26 2015 Sedona Forum Retrieved July 3 2015 Saar Malika Saada McCain Cindy June 30 2015 Saar McCain Ending child sex trafficking starts here St Paul Pioneer Press a b c d e f Cadelago Christopher Strauss Daniel Lippman Daniel August 28 2018 Cindy McCain wields quiet influence over Senate replacement Politico Cindy McCain eyed for senior role at State Department CBS News Associated Press May 5 2017 Markay Lachlan Suebsaeng Asawin June 12 2017 Trump Aggressively Courted Cindy McCain for State Dept Job The Daily Beast a b Scott Dylan April 4 2018 The whispered speculation about replacing John McCain is getting louder Vox a b Ducey shuts down rumors of Cindy McCain s appointment to Senate KTAR FM May 31 2018 Sanchez Yvonne Wingett May 31 2018 Ducey challenger John McCain s wife won t get Senate appointment if I become governor The Arizona Republic a b Hoffower Hillary May 22 2018 A look at the life and fortune of John McCain who has a sprawling real estate portfolio and donated 1 7 million in book sales to charity Business Insider Archived from the original on May 22 2018 Sanchez Yvonne Wingett July 13 2018 A year after John McCain s cancer diagnosis Cindy McCain expresses gratitude to caregivers The Arizona Republic Remembering John McCain CNN August 26 2018 Sanchez Yvonne Wingett September 6 2018 Cindy McCain returns to state Capitol to thank staff after John McCain s services The Arizona Republic a b Arkin James Isenstadt Alex September 4 2018 Kyl tapped to succeed McCain in Senate Politico a b Hurtado Alexandra August 26 2019 One Year Later Cindy McCain Remembers Late Husband John McCain You Learn to Live With a Broken Heart Parade Fieldstadt Elisha February 7 2019 Police refute Cindy McCain s claim a child at airport was trafficked by woman of a different ethnicity NBC News a b Ehrlich Jamie September 25 2019 Cindy McCain says GOP no longer the party that my husband and I belonged to MSN CNN Martin Jonathan June 6 2020 These Republican Leaders Aren t on the Bandwagon The New York Times Jaffe Alexandra August 18 2020 Cindy McCain details husband s friendship with Biden for DNC Associated Press Bradner Eric Mucha Sarah September 22 2020 Cindy McCain endorses Joe Biden CNN a b Merica Dan November 13 2020 Biden carries Arizona flipping a longtime Republican stronghold CNN a b Cindy McCain Joins Biden Harris Transition Team s Advisory Board President Elect Joe Biden Press release September 28 2020 Archived from the original on November 15 2020 Retrieved November 9 2020 Restuccia Andrew September 28 2020 WSJ News Exclusive Cindy McCain Joins Biden Transition Team Advisory Board Wall Street Journal ISSN 0099 9660 Retrieved November 13 2020 Resnik Brahm January 9 2021 Cindy McCain censured by Maricopa County Republicans after she sided with Biden in election KPNX Archived from the original on January 9 2021 Retrieved January 9 2021 a b Stephenson Hank Medina Jennifer January 23 2021 Arizona G O P Censures Three Top Members Criticized by Trump Loyalists The New York Times Grisales Claudia April 27 2021 In Stronger Cindy McCain Reflects On Life And The Last Days With John McCain NPR a b Arizona s Cindy McCain reportedly considered for ambassadorship Chamber Business News May 11 2021 Retrieved June 7 2021 a b Karni Annie June 23 2021 Cindy McCain is Biden s choice for ambassador to the U N s food program The New York Times Italiano Laura November 28 2020 Cindy McCain eyed by Biden for US ambassador to the UK report New York Post Biden poised to announce first slate of ambassador nominees as he eyes first trip abroad CNN June 7 2021 Joe Biden plans to nominate Burns Garcetti for ambassadorships NYT Reuters May 27 2021 a b Hill Meredith Lee March 1 2023 Cindy McCain tapped as head of World Food Program Politico Nominations Sent to the Senate Press release Washington D C The White House August 9 2021 nbsp This article incorporates text from this source which is in the public domain Sandoval Genesis September 28 2021 McCain Flake face light questioning in chummy confirmation hearing Cronkite News PN1008 Nomination of Cindy Hensley McCain for Department of State 117th Congress 2021 2022 United States Congress October 26 2021 Retrieved July 24 2022 Miller Andrew Mark October 26 2021 Senate confirms Cindy McCain to be representative to UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture Fox News Cindy McCain sworn in as new ambassador KPNX November 5 2021 Ambassador Cindy McCain presents her diplomatic credentials to the Director General of FAO Dr Qu Dongyu U S Mission to the UN Agencies in Rome January 18 2022 Retrieved January 25 2022 McCain Cindy USUNRomeAmb January 25 2022 Honored to present my credentials to IFADPresident Houngbo today Tweet Retrieved January 25 2022 via Twitter McCain Cindy USUNRomeAmb January 28 2022 Honored to present my credentials to WFPChief at WFP today Tweet Retrieved January 30 2022 via Twitter a b c Harvey Fiona January 25 2023 Russia to blame for worst food crisis since WW2 says US envoy The Guardian a b Herbst Diane April 20 2022 Cindy McCain on Her Next Chapter as an Ambassador in Rome and the Hope and Heartache of Organizing Aid People Lee Meredith May 17 2022 Cindy McCain on her new U N ambassador role and diplomatic baptism by fire Politico Secretary General Appoints Cindy H McCain of United States Executive Director World Food Programme Press release United Nations March 2 2023 Retrieved March 8 2023 a b WFP Executive Board welcomes appointment of Cindy McCain as new head of UN World Food Programme Press release World Food Programme March 2 2023 Retrieved March 8 2023 UN warns of Gaza catastrophe as Israel prepares invasion Politico October 22 2023 Arizona Chamber of Commerce amp Industry to honor Cindy McCain with Heritage Award Mohave Valley Daily News February 27 2020 Archived from the original on April 23 2021 Retrieved April 22 2021 Cindy McCain Congresswoman Bass Among 7 Honorary Degree Recipients MyNewsLA com March 8 2019 Gariano Francesca May 19 2019 Cindy McCain says her husband John McCain taught her how to live in powerful speech Today NBC External links edit nbsp Media related to Cindy McCain at Wikimedia Commons Appearances on C SPANDiplomatic postsPreceded byKip E Tom United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture2021 present Succeeded byTBDPreceded byDavid Beasley Executive Director of the World Food ProgrammeTaking office 2023 Designate Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Cindy McCain amp oldid 1198066511, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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