Meet the RNC Delegate: Sandra Dowling

Dowling, an insurance agent in Phoenix, spent 20 years as the Maricopa County Schools superintendent, until she left office in the wake of a controversial court battle, which she eventually won. She’s a Marine Corps veteran, and so are her husband, who served in Vietnam, and her son, who served in the Iraq War.

The few, the proud: Dowling joined the Marines in 1973, when female Marines were rare. Military recruiters tried to steer her to the Air Force, but she insisted. “I thought if I could make it through the Marine Corps, I could do anything I wanted to do in life.”

Comeback: “Being at this convention is a big deal,” Dowling says. Ten years ago, she was charged with 25 felonies, including misuse of public money -— but the case collapsed. She pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor, for hiring her daughter for a summer job, then sued the county, claiming malicious prosecution and received a $250,000 settlement. “When this whole thing happened, people didn’t give me a chance at surviving.” This April, she got the third-most votes of any delegate at Arizona’s state Republican convention.

Issue she’s passionate about: She wants to encourage new types of schools without undercutting the current system. “I think right now the federal government has a tendency to pull financial strings to get things it wants to get done.”

Why she’s for Trump: “I like his honesty [and] his independence, his ability to make a decision in spite of the system rather than because of the system.”