Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat who may run for president in 2028, says President Trump and his Republican allies want “to intimidate their way to victory” in this November’s congressional elections.
“They understand how important these races are and they’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars right here, right now. They’re flooding the state with everything they have and they’re going to fight for the system that is working for them,” Kelly said. “…That’s why we can’t give up and we can’t back down.”
Kelly was in Clear Lake tonight, the keynote speaker at the “Wing Ding” fundraiser for the Democratic parties in six northern Iowa counties. “I was a little bit disappointed when I found out ‘Wing Ding’ doesn’t have anything to do with airplanes,” said Kelly, who spent 15 years as a NASA astronaut after retiring from the Navy.
Kelly began his remarks on stage at the historic Surf Ballroom talking about his own biography and a recent trip to show his 30-year-old daughter the house she lived in until she was one. “She said: ‘Dad, I don’t understand. I mean, you were able to buy that house…and you were my age and you were in the Navy?'” Kelly said. “…I was lucky enough to work hard when hard work still paid off…It’s not that hard work stopped mattering. It’s just that your hard work, it now makes somebody else rich.”
Last year Kelly was one of five other Democrats in congress who recorded a video urging military personnel to refuse illegal orders. The crowd in Clear Lake cheered when Kelly repeated that message. “Donald Trump called for me to be hanged, executed, prosecuted. He couldn’t even get the order right,” Kelly said, to laughter and applause.
Trump has called Kelly “a traitor” who should be tried for sedetion. Kelly told the crwod in Clear Lake Trump is trying to silence his critics.
Kelly was first elected to the U.S. Senate in November of 2020, winning the seat that had been held by the late Arizona Senator John McCain. Kelly was re-elected in 2022.