No name ran for Senate in 1987.
Top Gun's release date was 1986.
"Maverick" is not a term of indearment in the military (think hussein's code name) and before Top Gun, Noname's knick name was seen as very taboo, like being called insolent.
It is very likely that Noname had a little propaganda preperation in the movie character of Top Gun. The character Maverick never represented anything a true "top gun" pilot in the armed forces would aspire to be. Pilots do attest to that but just write off the character as a fictional hollywood movie. However "Out of the Shadows" discloses that there most likely was more to the story, when you look back on the time line of 1986 to 1987.