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.