Former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling announced his intention Tuesday to run for the United States Senate as a Republican against Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren in 2018.
Speaking on The John DePetro Show on Rhode Island’s WPRO-AM (h/t Tim Hill of the Guardian), Schilling added he still needs to clear the decision with his family.
“I’ve made my decision,” he said, per Hill. “I’m going to run. But I haven’t talked to Shonda, my wife. And ultimately it’s going to come down to how her and I feel this would affect our marriage and our kids.”
Schilling pitched for the Baltimore Orioles, Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, Arizona Diamondbacks and Boston Red Sox, finishing his career 216-146 with 3,116 strikeouts, a 3.46 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP. He was a six-time All-Star and three-time World Series champion, and he finished second in Cy Young Award voting three times, though he never won the honor.
He’s been a more controversial figure in his post-baseball career, however.
In 2012, his video game studio, 38 Studios, went bankrupt two years after receiving a $75 million taxpayer-based loan from the state of Rhode Island, per Hill. The state ultimately sued, and Schilling and Rhode Island agreed to a $2.5 million settlement.
Schilling has also raised eyebrows with a number of public statements. In 2015, he was suspended by his then-employer, ESPN, after a tweet that compared the number of Muslim extremists to German Nazis. A year later, ESPN fired him after he shared an anti-transgender Facebook post that supported North Carolina legislation that made it illegal for transgender persons to use bathrooms that didn’t match the sex on their birth certificate.
Along with sharing the Facebook post, Schilling wrote: “A man is a man no matter what they call themselves. I don’t care what they are, who they sleep with, men’s room was designed for the penis, women’s not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic.”
Per Hill, Schilling has been hinting at running against Warren for some time.
“I thought about it, and one of the things I would like to do is be one of the people responsible for getting Elizabeth Warren out of politics,” Schilling said in August, according to Hill’s report. “I think she’s a nightmare and I think that the left is holding her up as the second coming of Hillary Clinton, but Lord knows we don’t even need the first one.”
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