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The late Sen. John McCain, another household name, wasn't a homegrown candidate, either.
When, in 1982, he announced his candidacy to represent an Arizona district in the US House, he was accused of being a carpetbagger who was "using the state to advance his own ambitions."
The former senator and presidential nominee, who was successful in his first run for public office in 1982, had never lived in Arizona until he moved there in 1981. He was born in the Panama Canal Zone — at the time, a US territory — and raised in a Navy family, which entailed moving around frequently.
Critics attacked McCain as an opportunist who knew nothing about the district or Arizona. Fed up with the accusations, McCain, then a political newcomer, fought back by playing up his status as a national hero, having spent five-and-half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
"Listen, pal. I spent 22 years in the Navy. My grandfather was in the Navy. We in the military service tend to move a lot. We have to live in all parts of the country, all parts of the world. I wish I could have had the luxury, like you, of growing up and living and spending my entire life in a nice place like the first district of Arizona, but I was doing other things," he retorted.
He continued: "As a matter of fact, when I think about it now, the place I lived longest in my life was Hanoi."
When the two-time presidential candidate died in 2018, Gov. Doug Ducey said at his memorial service, "Like many of us here in Arizona, John McCain was from somewhere else. But his spirit, service, and fierce independence ultimately helped shape the state with which he became synonymous."