Madalynne Nicole Maverick (née Larson; born August 15, 1982) is a Legisotan politician currently serving as the Representative for Legisota’s 1st congressional district. She is a member of the Red Party. She was first elected in 2016, defeating ten-term Red incumbent Olaf Thompson in a primary upset. Her narrow victory over Thompson has been attributed to the anti-establishment political climate of 2016 and financial contributions from several outsider conservative think tanks. She has described herself as a “conservative firebrand” and “enemy of all things liberalism.” She is criticized by more moderate members within her party as being unwilling to compromise, but nevertheless maintains a solid base of support in her overwhelmingly rural and conservative district.

Early life, education, and career before politics
Maverick was born Madalynne Nicole Larson in the small town of Leighton, Legisota. Her father left her family at an early age and Larson was largely raised by her mother, Agatha Larson. Her mother’s household was deeply religious and her mother homeschooled her until the age of fifteen, where Larson attended Leighton High School.

After graduating in 2000, Larson attended the University of Legisota in Legiapolis, where she received her bachelor’s degree. While in college she became politically active, joining her college’s chapter of Young Reds. She lists her political heroes as Rayne And and Reagan Ronalds. Afterwards, she attended Legisota’s School of Law, where she met her future husband Chad Maverick, where she received her law degree. After graduating, she returned to her small town of Leighton and served as an attorney until 2012.

Mayor of Leighton
In 2012, she considered running for Congress in Legisota, but instead decided to run in the special election for mayor of her hometown. The previous mayor was impeached for mismanaging the town’s funds in trying to construct a winter sports complex. She ran against five other opponents in the open primary, but her main rival was Jakob Jacobsen. The initial primary took place on May 15, 2012. Jakob Jacobsen led the primary with 27.5% while Maverick received 24.9% of the vote.

Because no candidate reached 30% of the vote, Jacobsen and Maverick were forced into a runoff election that took place during September 18, 2012. While Jacobsen was originally favored, a revelation that he had an earlier affair caused his support among conservative Christians to dwindle, allowing Maverick to win 55.2% of the vote.

As mayor, the town’s local economy initially slowly recovered after she proposed cuts in social programs and education. However, shortly after the economy stagnated. Nevertheless, she was re-elected to a regular term in November of 2014 where she won the primary with 67% of the vote.

2016 congressional campaign
In the middle of her first full term, Maverick opted to challenge Red incumbent Olaf Thompson in the Red primary for Legisota’s 1st congressional district. Legisota’s 1st congressional district, sometimes referred to as “The Wintery West” due to its notoriously cold climate and its location in the Northwestern portion of the state. The 1st congressional district is 97.4% white and nearly 70% rural, with an agricultural centered economy.

Thompson was first elected in 1996 and won most of his elections in landslides, both in the primary and the general. However, in 2014 Thompson unexpectedly faced a strong primary challenger in Charles Berglund, a conservative businessman. Thompson won the primary with only 53% of the vote, his lowest percentage in both a primary and a general election in twenty years.

Due to the closeness of the 2014 results, some political observers expected Thompson to retire ahead of the 2016 elections. However, in June of 2015 he announced that he will run for an eleventh term in Congress. Maverick announced her candidacy later that year in September. She criticized Thompson for being in office for too long and for losing touch with western Legisota, saying he spends too much time in St. Ledge, the state’s capital. As the mayor of a small town, she campaigned as a conservative outsider, referring to herself as Madalynne “Mad Dog” in campaign advertisements. She ran to his right on social issues, taking hard-line stances against abortion and legalization of marijuana. She focused heavily on the dairy farming industry in her campaign as well, running advertisements that Thompson was bad for Legisota farmers and that he needed to “moo-ve out.” She was supported by the interest group Association of Concerned Mothers for Direct Action for Life. Through a coalition of conservative women, dairy farmers, and anti-establishment voters she was able to narrowly defeat Thompson with 52.1% of the vote. She later won the general election against Blue Party member Deborah Handler, winning 71.2% of the vote.

Policy positions
Abortion- Maverick is firmly against abortion and supports a total ban on abortion as well as defunding Planned Parenthood within Legisota.
Drugs- Maverick has introduced legislation to help combat the increasing opioid addiction epidemic that is facing her district. She is opposed to legalizing marijuana as she believes it is a gateway drug to opioids.
Economy- Maverick is a proponent of tax cuts for the wealthy. She is against raising the minimum wage, stating that raising the minimum wage would hurt small businesses.
Education- Maverick believes in “school choice” and opposes Common Core.
Environment- Maverick denies the scientific consensus on climate change. She also supports fracking and loosening of mining restrictions.
Farming- Maverick is a strong proponent of the dairy farmer industry, frequently voting for tax cuts and subsidies for farmers.
Guns- Maverick is a strong supporter of the 2nd Amendment and supports relaxed restrictions on firearms.
Healthcare- Maverick is against all forms of single-payer health insurance, which she has referred to as “socialist garbage.”
Immigration- In 2018, Maverick suggested “building a wall” between Legisota and Canada to a reporter. She later went on to walk back the claims, saying that “a wall” was simply a metaphor for tighter immigration restrictions instead of a literal wall.
Social Security- Maverick supports the privatization of social security.

Controversies
In early 2019, Maverick was interviewed by LegiTRUTH, a far-right newspaper by Legix Jones. In the interview she stated that “climate alarmists” have exaggerated the effects of climate change. She is quoted as saying: “People are telling me that this is the hottest year on record or whatever, and I’m over here thinking, do these people actually live in Legisota? It gets down to -30 in the winter sometimes, and that’s the hottest year on record? What a load of cow pie.”

In the same interview she also stated that “Liberals have been pushing diversity on us for a while now, they’re creating all these unnecessary programs for it, it’s ridiculous, they’re sending these radical feminist lesbian farmers and what have you to my district, it’s nuts out there.”

After facing criticism from liberals and even moderates within her own party for these interviews, she defended herself by saying “You know, these liberals, they always say they want more women in politics. They want more women speaking their minds. Well guess what? I’m a woman who’s active in politics and they hate my guts. You wanna know why? They don’t actually want more women in politics, they just want other liberals in politics, because when a conservative woman like me tells the truth, they suddenly want women like us to shut up and go back to the kitchen.”

Recently, Maverick has come under fire for a Midland Times exposé which accused Maverick of being bought out by “Big COW Inc.” She has denied all the claims, stating that while she supports dairy farmers, she is her own legislator who makes her own decisions based on common-sense conservative values.

Personal life
Maverick married her husband, a professional bodybuilder named Chad Maverick, in 2008. They have three children together, Bradley, Adalaide, and Thadeus.