Mark Kelly, husband of Gabby Giffords and crusader for gun control since she was shot, has announced that he’s running for the US Senate from Arizona. Assuming he gets the Democrat nomination, he’ll be going up against Senator Martha McSally in 2020 who was appointed to complete John McCain’s term.
My next mission… #FullSpeedAhead #ForArizona pic.twitter.com/5E36z7aztH
— Mark Kelly (@ShuttleCDRKelly) February 12, 2019
From thehill.com:
Kelly’s interest in running for the seat was a poorly guarded secret. He met with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chief Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) earlier this year to discuss the race, and he had identified a campaign manager by last month, sources told The Hill.
He has been working with Rodd McLeod, a veteran Arizona Democratic strategist who worked on Giffords’s first race.
The Arizona Democrat said Tuesday he would work to ensure affordable health care and wage growth, standard Democratic talking points. But he struck a tone similar to (Senator Kyrsten) Sinema, who ran her 2018 campaign by tacking more toward the middle of the ideological spectrum than toward the left.
Run to the center, then govern from the left. It’s a tried and true formula.
As his campaign site notes, he . . .
co-founded the organization ‘GIFFORDS,’ which unites veterans, law enforcement officials, gun owners, faith leaders, and Americans of all stripes to reduce gun violence and make our communities safer.
Translation: he’s campaigned for civilian disarmament and abrogating Americans’ gun rights after his wife was victimized by a madman with a gun. If Kelly defeats McSally, he will be another solid Democrat vote in support of virtually any gun control measure that comes before him. Full speed ahead.
I was an astronaut. My wife is a potato. Vote for me.
Classy.
More classy than trying to strip the rights off of people.
No less classy than using your wife as a puppet to disarm the citizenry.
It worked for Carolyn McCarthy in NY after the LIRR shooting. She rode her dead husband and wounded son right into Congress.
Worked when Sarah Brady paraded her husband around for sympathy.
Yes, kelly is a dirtbag using his wife. Take shots at that vile jackass, not his wife. She didn’t deserve what happened to her and she has no clue what’s going on now. She’s a victim of her husband, have sympathy for her and hammer her husband
She is literally a living sock puppet
And Mark Kelly is pulling the strings and putting words in her mouth.
The truth is sometimes ugly, but always classy.
Potatoes around the world UNITE! This kind of degrading comment about potatoes is uncalled for, inconsiderate and inaccurate! Your average potato is not a gun grabbing liberal!
Well that was funny🤣
My how Arizona has changed. He’ll probably win.
If Martha McSally runs another milquetoast establishment GOP race, then yes, he will win.
If she embraces conservatism and Donald Trump, well, then Mr. Kelly will have a race on his hands.
The Republicans Arizona sends to the Senate might as well be Demoncrats anyway, so it’s probably a wash either way.
They shouldn’t run her, they should get someone else.
She’s a bad candidate.
Unfortunately, you only win in Arizona if you embrace the medical give-aways, because there is far too many Medicare leaches here that made too many bad decisions in their early life and now are making the taxpayers suffer and pay for it.
Uh, maybe you meant Medicaid?!
You realize that under the current law you can’t avoid Medicare, right?
So I have a job, a job I’ve been at for 12 years. Recently, a guy who had about as much time as I do quit/got fired. He went and found a job paying under the table, about $13/hr. He has a wife and two kids, so he now collects $700/mo in food stamps, and gets completely paid for medical, dental, and vision.
Our fairly good insurance doesn’t pay nearly that well, and after the food stamps and everything, he ends up making more than me. Plus, the tax breaks for “not being employed” and having 3 dependents, he’s set. There’s now no reason for him to get employed anymore.
Unfortunately going the way of my state and others. Liberals from the snow states looking for better climate (75 outside now) and bringing their politics with them.
So is it liberals moving from liberal states to conservative states, then influencing convervative folks to turn liberal? I’m not being facetious. I’ve read this explaination many times by many commenters on TTAG. I don’t get offended by the, “damn californians keep moving in and make our cities liberal, that’s why I left that cesspool!” My limited understanding is the primary infuence is left’s stronghold on the media. But what are the POTG doing about it?
There isn’t much you can do in some cases. California, as of 2017 had nearly 40 million people. They can export A LOT of people with a population like that.
Here in Colorado we get 20,000-30,000 Californians A MONTH. And no, that number is NOT a typo. That happens month after month and has for about four years in a row now. In a state with a population of 5.7 million (2017) importing 240,000 – 360,000 per year, year after year changes the demographics immensely.
So you don’t have to do the arithmetic I’ll show you. That’s 960,000 to 1.44 million Californians added to Colorado in the past four years. Just based on the numbers we know that means that 16.8% to 24.9% of the current population is all Californians who have come here in less than the last half decade.
Show me any state that can have 15-25% of it’s population changed to liberal in four years and remain “red”.
Strych9, thank you. Per google search these folks, mostly lower class and some middle class, leaving california are doing so becuse of the high cost of living (high taxes and high cost of housing) and moving into red states. Which i’m guessing, there, they will vote for people that will give them more financial aid via higher taxes, more gov control and thus gun control. Damn Democrats. Ain’t much POTG can do about that.
They’re dumping into Arizona as we speak. I see a lot of Washingtonians and Oregonians too.
Only reason Sinema won was because of the Democrat Mexican vote recorded and all the votes they “found”.
Worried about my state. Lots of Californians and Coloradans pouring in with Subarus and bumperstickers.
Thank goodness us Arizonans love our guns…
“What changes do I want to make to more fully take advantage of the ideals voiced in the Constitution and Bill of Rights?” is something you’ll never hear this one-trick pony Mark Kelly – or pretty much any of today’s Democrats say.
When will supposed conservatives understand that if someone wants to elect a candidate with Left/Marxist slant there is the Democrat party .
When he makes a public appearance , someone should read aloud to him the oath he took when being sworn into military service and point out to him that he is violating this oath.
Then arrest him, charge him with treason, and throw him in GITMO until he coughs up his co-conspirators.
He’s not in the military now, is he?
Felix, you sound like you are suffering from a common misconception. The oath does not include “for so long as I am in the military”, the oath is for life. I was out of the military for 2 years, when I reentered no one had any interest in readministering the oath, I had already taken it.
As much as I agree with the sentiment the question doesn’t legally revolve around the oath.
The question in terms of doing what serge is talking about is whether or not Kelly falls under the jurisdiction of the UCMJ which I’m pretty confident he does not.
How will his sock puppet wife speak with out he former astronut constantly being at her back side.
McSally will likely blow it again. There’s way too many “muh true conservuhtive” types in AZ that want nothing more than medical gibs. They’ll all die in 10 years anyways so why do they care who they send to the senate? They always vote in the dumbest people and then never care about the consequences, as long as they get what they want.
Maybe Trump will at least effect the down ballot, but as it is McSally is a crappy candidate.
Therein lies the big problem. McSally proved that she couldn’t beat weirdo Sinema. So, what happens next? The governor appoints McSally instead of someone who will win the next election. A really strong conservative Republican needs to primary McSally. Otherwise there is a good chance that Arizona will have two Dem senators.
McSally lost when the Dems were able to stuff the ballot box with illegally harvested ballots. In AZ that’s a felony, but I haven’t seen anyone arrested. Certainly Adrian Fontes did everything he could to keep counting.
Remember, she was comfortably ahead until they counted the “drop off” ballots. Those ballots normally break fairly hard Republican, but this time they were overwhelmingly Dem.
No, she lost because she was against all the garbage healthcare giveaways we have in Arizona. Don’t be deluded or fall for that trap, call the hypocrites out appropriately. Why do you think McSame voted to keep the health law in place?
It’s literally the people who refused to take care of themselves when they were young and want government healthcare giveaways that vote in Democrats because that’s -all- they want. They don’t care otherwise.
Call them out for the greedy assholes they are instead of falling for these ballot stuffing memes.
Crappy candidate or not, I’ll have to send her money. That asshole would be a disaster.
How about a trip to Uranus?!? Isn’t this the fool who tried to do a straw purchase?😡
Interesting… Doesn’t that make him ineligible to hold federal office?
No. You can hold federal office with a felony conviction but not a position that requires a security clearance.
Besides, like Ted “Lion of the Senate/Champion of Women” Kennedy, Space Cadet was never charged and never took posession of the rifle. The dealer canceled the sale after learning it was going g to be given directly to LE.
Not if he wasn’t prosecuted, and no one is ever prosecuted.
Why isn’t he serving 10 years for that straw purchase?
Why wasn’t he prosecuted when his pit bull mauled and killed the seal pup (protected species) on the beach in Laguna Beach California. Well the Kelleys claimed the dog really wasn’t his, it was his daughter’s. It supposedly belonged to his eighteen year old daughter who was walking it on the beach when the leash supposedly broke, allowing the dog to kill the seal pup. No mention of where the dog was actually domiciled, and paying the not insubstantial feed and vet bills. It was staying at his residence at the time of the incident. The leash broke. I guess ensuring you have an adequate leash in serviceable condition for your pit bull, or other large potentially deadly animal is beyond what can reasonably be expected of even a rocket scientist. By running for running for the senate he can double up on his family’s already substantial federal guaranteed income.
in my experience, Arizona astronauts make great space explorers and lousy politicians. Goes for all astronauts actually.
So I say, “pass”
Being a NASA Astronaut doesn’t make you into a rocket scientist.
What happened in Tucson to his wife and the others – I don’t wish on anyone. But Mark Kelly running for Senate – we have a rocket man already in N Korea. Quote from Mark himself – ““We’ve seen this retreat from science and data and facts, and if we don’t take these issues seriously, we can’t solve these problems …” – wow, read the “research” articles on Everytown, Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Americans for Responsible Solutions – figures hand picked out of context, mostly from non-peer reviewed trash research, disproved in many cases by what is normally considered liberal strongholds – the CDC, AMA, John Hopkins (do some research and Google yourself). Even the FBI finds that all these feel good solutions based on the useless, unscientific crap posted on the sites that Mark supports do not curb “gun” violence but only infringes on law abiding firearm owners. I guess next he’ll be saying the NRA is buying our politicians – Soros doled out $50 million to Everytown and who knows how much more he and Bloomberg contribute to other anti-gun, anti 2A, anti-constitutional gun grabbing PACs. They out spend the NRA a 100-fold. And just like Kyrsten Sinema’s campaign handlers have coached her, I’m sure Kelly will be as silent as possible on his ant-gun stance. I was registered Independent for almost always but in the last year registered Republican. I won’t digress about Trump – at least he is putting America first, something I doubt Kelly will do.
So, to wrap up on my soapbox and rant, the anti-2A groups Kelly supports are full bovine excrement with their only purpose is disarming the populace. Kelly will turn a new leaf when Hell freezes over. We POTG are law abiding and peaceful, for the most part not flaunting our love of the gun – be it target shooting, hunting, plinking, self-defense, or just our exercise of the 2A, but I think we need to start banding together and make our voices heard. I fear the red flag laws will be used against us to curtail out First Amendment right to but we must stand up. Remember in Germany dissidents were considered mentally defective, sent to re-indoctrination camps, etc. and stripped of their guns. We know how all that ended. If Kelly appears to have any chance of all at winning I will be at the rallies protesting. I will also be making my vote count.
I thought AZ was a bastion for gun rights. Man I’m out of the know…
AZ still is a bastion for gun rights, but not for much longer. Since 2000 AZ population has grown by 2 million, where do you think all those people came from, they sure weren’t born there? Liberal locusts devouring everything in their path.
This is the guy who turned his wife into the Village Idiot for gun control. I read their book in which they tried to plead pro-gun stances. It was nothing but a NRA, Second Amendment hit job.
If Arizonans believe that Kelly will represent them and not Bloomberg, then they’ve been spending too much time in Colorado.
This sucks.
I will personally do all I can to turn Arizonans off to this hypocritical stooge. Alas, I will largely be preaching to the choir, as we really don’t have a suitable opponent for him (…and his “hand-puppet,” see above commentary…). There are simply too many affluent Arizona leeches on the gubmint payroll, and the issue of infringements on their Bill of Rights just hasn’t been made a priority for them– be it privacy, due process, 2A rights, et al. Frankly, their zombified priority seems to be turning my free state into one big California gated community….
Far from wanting to compromise and accomodate us, they quite despise us “gun nuts.” Arguing over Kelly’s famous gaff– the illicit straw purchase of a rifle– isn’t some kind of convincing epiphany to them… these people don’t like or want “gun rights” anyway, and they see nothing wrong in want Kelly did as stunt (and sadly, will often argue that he did the right thing, and was in fact “smeared by the NRA”). No, probably some dirt on him will have to be found, unfortunately. And, in the end, that might not even matter. He’s an American “hero,” after all. His wife, too.. so I have been told.
***This was always the obvious peril in pushing the 2A chips all-in with one party. You can argue “fundamental values” and conservatism until you’re (literally now) blue in the face– but it was a stupid and short-sighted and stubborn strategy. The argument always should have been, and must from now on be: the preservation of Constiutionally-protected guaranteed CIVIL RIGHTS. Period. Not Democrat and Republican… that is just myopic to the core. If we continue to attach our 2A rights to one party, instead of realizing that Americans can disagree on all manner of various things EXCEPT their Constitutionally-protected guaraneed civil rights, then we are doomed to “common sense gun safety” …which we all know means the erosion and eventual loss of our 2A civil rights, and ultimately the criminalization of civilian armament.*** I think the Democrat Party is as insane and freakishly dumb as anyone here, and I certainly disagree with the majority of their noxious platform, especially today’s Democrats… but it does not matter how bitter the pill, we must swallow it. Future 2A preservation strategy must include divorcing ourselves from a single party. In part, it must be done by convincing the Democrat Party that they can “add to their base” by renouncing gun hysteria and 2A civil rights from their platform. Yes, it means folks out there are going to have to choose between things like first-trimester pro-choice abortions, and transgender bathroom rights, and all manner of lesser hills and mountains of liberty… or the preservation of 2A civil rights. The focus must be on checking the progressive militarization of law enforcement (and how that is the by-product of civilian disarmament and relinquishing of our civil rights), and the true revealing gun crime data that proves gun hysteria is only prejudiced ignorance, propagandized fear-mongering, and the throwing away of our civil rights and liberty for false “safety.” I know that many of us are convinced that the Democrat Party, “libturds,” and “progressives” are our natural societal enemies… and you’ll usually get no argument out of me… but they are still Americans, and somewhere in there they do have a sense of liberty and civil rights, however caged and Stockholm-syndromed it might currently be. For example: We need to equate the 2A with enumerated civil rights like the 1A, and appeal to Democrat Party supporters who are growing weary of the Stalinist cannibalization of free speech at the religious altar of “social justice.” Let these fellow Americans (say it, please: fellow Americans) know that our 2A civil rights are fundamentally the same as the other enumerated rights, and the Bill of Rights is not optional or arbitrary.
Else we are going to see more “real American heroes” like Mark Kelly. As an Arizonan, I find this very disturbing.
Be safe (…actual AZ Mort)
PS– And for the sake of liberty and justice for all… please bring back the edit function, so we can correct rogue typos. Typing on a phone screen in the Arizona sunshine can be as challenging as being an astronaut running for the Senate in the greatest Second Amendment state in our nation… or something.
Mort, I agree, we are going to need to be more and more single-issue voters. Most of the things you mention I find really easy, such as I really don’t care what bathroom you use, I have spent many years living in countries with unisex public restrooms, and the world did not end. Who cares? But I know some will find it difficult or impossible to be rational on some of the usual subjects.
If a Constitutional Carry state elects this guy I’ll tell my brother to move because it is dangerous to live with people that stupid.
This is bad news as republicans will be defending twice as many senate seats as democrats in 2020. I hope they don’t lose Alabama again. I expect Kelly will be very heavily funded. McSally is not the right person to go against Kelly.
I am a single issue voter, as well. Gun control is my issue. I do not care where a constituent stands on any other issue. I will take a solid, pro-gun Democrat, over a wussy, anti-gun Republican any day. And personally, EVERY last worthless politician who is anti-gun-like this idiot-should NEVER be allowed to own guns, should NEVER be allowed to have armed security, and should have any and ALL firearms confiscated when he is running for office-FOR LIFE! This a** hat should put his money where his damned mouth is first, before deciding he wants to use the First Amendment to trash the Second. Oh, please forgive me (insert sarcasm), I was dreaming there for a minute.
Solid, pro-gun Democrat. Any examples? How can anybody be solidly pro-gun when they politically align themselves with a party that puts a so called assault weapons ban and a so called large capacity magazine ban in it’s party platform? It’s a fraud.
LMAO, no…but my point is, I would actually go out of my way, Huntmaster, and vote Democrat, if he/she was a solid pro-gunner, over an anti-gun Republican or Independent. From what I have found, however, there have been no pro-gun Democrats, as most of them hate the Constitution and Bill of Rights-the Second Amendment especially.
So, no examples. Anybody?
Dear Mr. Blunker,
I can appreciate your incisive view point, but am concerned that you do not seem to realize that they are two people that are sincerely committed to the aggrandizement of themselves and the implementation of their cherished dreams of revenge upon all who recognize them for what they are.
Think about it. I personally feel that they represent the current American Dream and would love to see the both of then living in the White House as President and First Lady.
Can you imagine how glorious it would be to not have to make any decisions about how you have to live your life?
Mr. Blunker, Please leave, Our America, because you are morally stunted, stupid, and incoherently incapable of coming to, and realizing, that there is a solution for your angst.
Vote Democrat, without exception.
Sincerely,
Alferd Packer
Dont think he pulls it off. Sinema barely won over McSally and I see the anti-gun position as a net liability here in AZ
McSally beats him by 5+ %
He should be ashamed of himself for taking advantage of his wife’s condition to further his own long-standing political agenda.
The man has no honor.
space cadet should take another space trip, just don’t come back
I called this when he retired and started his anti gun not for profit.
only matter of time before he entered a race for a US Senate seat.
Space anti gun man vs Air Force Combat Veteran. I’m with Martha.
Arm yourselves. We will ultimately have to fight democrats.
So, he is going to run on a one issue platform.
Not the greatest idea Mr. Potatoe Head.
especially in AZ. There is a reason the Sinema campaign never touched on guns, and she won by ~1%. While previous bastions of gun rights like FL and VT have seen some recent erosion, i can confirm gun control has no foothold here (for the time being). Kelly running on his platform may as well hand McSally the seat.
i am almost hoping the goonsquad gets their UBC ballot initiative through (as in, in front of the voters) so we can watch it go down in flames.. probably 65:35. arizonans love our guns.
Yeah, not gonna’ vote for that guy.
Giffords shooting = HOAX
Please, please, please, put his denied 4473 on a billboard!
You are a joke, sounds like you wish to take over the government or state selling drugs.
What ever happen to getting the guns away from the drug dealers an all the other people in crime? At one time that was all you could see on T.V. and they still have their guns.
NO!!!! you liberal clowns start with the honset people. The people that are not living off the tax payer. The people that control their guns, hunt and keep them locked up when not being used.
How many of the shooting were by young adult’s that used their parents gun because the parents did not lock them up.
Some of my guns are not locked up because all of my kids are married and move away and started there own life. I am almost 77 years old and have several collections in my home, live alone and always have a loaded gun near me. You hever know when some one will break in or jump you on the street all legel guns owners should have or be given a conceal permit.
When I read this I immediately got a sinking feeling in my gut….
It’s no secret most Arizonians feel a sense of disgust with these blue state immigrants pouring into the state bringing their liberal ideas, but let me assure you that not all are looking to “californicate” Arizona.
Many are in fact looking to the strong conservative values that run deep in Arizona as a safe haven, somewhere to fall back to and regroup so so speak.
My family is just one of these that have abandoned their native soil and moved to Arizona. At this point I feel my back is against the wall, I will not run from my home again. With my new friends and neighbors this is where I make my stand. Stay strong Arizona.