Former astronaut Mark Kelly wants to knock Martha McSally out of the U.S. Senate
Former navy fighter pilot and retired astronaut Mark Kelly confirmed the rumors this week: He’s running for U.S. Senate against Republican Martha McSally, who was appointed to her seat after being the first Republican to lose a Senate race in Arizona in three decades.
Kelly had a 25-year career in the U.S. Navy, but was drawn into politics when he married Gabby Giffords, whose own congressional career came to an end after surviving an assassination attempt during a Congress on Your Corner event in January 2011 that claimed the lives of six people.
After the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Kelly and Giffords established Americans for Responsible Solutions to lobby for new laws to prevent gun violence. The organization changed its name to Giffords last year.
In an announcement speech on YouTube, Kelly credited Gabby for showing him how government could improve people’s lives.
“You know, I learned a lot from being an astronaut, I learned a lot from being a pilot in the Navy. I learned a lot about solving problems from being an engineer,” Kelly said. “But what I learned from my wife is how you use policy to improve people’s lives. Arizonans are facing incredibly challenging issues in the years to come. Access to affordable healthcare, the stagnation of wages, job growth, the economy. I care about people, I care about the state of Arizona, I care about this nation. So because of that, I’ve decided that I’m launching a campaign for the United States Senate.”
Kelly’s entry into the race is McSally’s worst nightmare. She’s already lost one Senate race and only has her seat because she cooked up an insurance plan with Jon Kyl and Gov. Doug Ducey. Kyl, who took a break from his lobbying career to accept an appointment to the late Sen. John McCain’s seat, stepped down at the end of last year so McSally could have a consolation prize after falling to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema.
Team Kelly knows McSally inside and out. Many of his most trusted advisors are veterans of campaigns run by Giffords and Ron Barber, the former congressman who won the seat Giffords gave up in 2012 to focus on her recovery. Barber narrowly won a race against McSally in 2012 and lost one to her by a mere 167 votes in 2014.
McSally lost her Senate race because she went from Trump skeptic to Trump true believer in 2018. She hasn’t veered from that course, remaining a loyal foot soldier to Trump from her Senate perch. For example, while a handful of Republicans (including newly elected Utah Sen. Mitt Romney) voted alongside Democrats to end the government shutdown last month, McSally remained a team player, voting only for the GOP plan.
At this point, it’s gonna be hard for McSally to break up with Trump, who will remain at the top of the ticket in 2020. But even if she remains his loyal handmaiden, she’s still got problems with the Arizona Republican Party, which is now under the control of one of her political rivals, Kelli Ward, who lost to McSally in the 2018 GOP primary for Senate. And despite McSally’s allegiance to Trump, it’s entirely possible that she’ll have a primary challenge because many conservative Republicans still think she’s too lib.
Kelly does have to make it through a Democratic primary, though he’s the first one to announce a 2020 campaign. Sinema’s win had a lot of Democrats thinking about running in 2020. One dropped out last week: Newly minted Democrat Grant Woods, who served two terms as Arizona’s attorney general as a Republican in the 1990s. Woods, a close ally of John McCain who supported Sinema in 2018, has been dismayed by the direction of the GOP. He had hoped to follow Sinema’s moderate path to the U.S. Senate, but has been haunted by some of his not-exactly-woke comments he made about women when he hosted a talk-radio show in Phoenix after he left office.
Still considering the race is Congressman Ruben Gallego of Maricopa County, a rising star in the Democratic Party. Gallego is a veteran who would make a formidable candidate in the primary, but might not have the moderate appeal Sinema had in the 2018 general race against McSally.
And then there’s the matter of money. McSally knows how to bring in the dollars—so many dollars, in fact, that she can’t keep track of it all and is in regular trouble with the Federal Elections Commission. In her Senate race, McSally raised more than $20 million.
But Kelly can match that. He’s already has a fundraising base from his work with Giffords and will be considered one of the most competitive candidates in the country.
Stock up on popcorn. This is gonna be a race for the ages.
The radio edition of Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel airs at 5 p.m. Sundays on community radio KXCI, 91.3 FM.
This article appears in Feb 14-20, 2019.
This nut job bought an AR-15 from Diamond Back Shooting sports after his wife was shot. When caught he promptly claimed he was buying it to prove how easy it was to buy one, which yes, does not make any sense, then he proceeded to claim he was going to give it to TPD until, get this, we pointed out that was a straw purchase which anyone with any gun law knowledge knows that is a no no. So to save face Diamond back took the gun back which is unheard of for any gun shop. So the moral of this story, how can you campaign for more gun laws when you dont know what ones already exist?
So typical of the new radikal left. McSally may lose in the primary to a better candidate so this will be a spend fest!!
When guns are outlawed, only politicians, celebrities, the rich and famous, and criminals, will have guns !
No worries Dave D, nobody wants to take away all of your precious guns. They just want to pass some sensible laws to attempt to put a stop to mass murders with the semi automatic weapons which can be easily converted into automatic weapons. But, from reading your commentary in other places on this site, I understand that the word sensible has no place with your narrow points of view. Don’t sweat it bud, you’ll be okay as long as you don’t go trigger happy on a building full of human targets. I hope you’re somewhat relieved now.
Thank you, Devad you sure taken a LOAD off my back .
Devad, that would be nice but do you really think they only want “sensible” gun laws when nut job Nancy referred to a demorat president should use a national emergency to enforce gun control and do what they do best and ignore the constitution? Not to mention this rocket scientist already ignored an existing law by trying to give away a gun he just bought? The only relieving you are talking about is usually called going NO:2. So dont sweat we are taking care of your constitutional rights, even if you don’t know what they are.
Yup, nut job Nancy…one of the few people keeping WAY bigger nut job Trump from doing completely nut job things. You have exposed your ignorance tenfold. Come back when you have a better rebutal.