Mark Kelly to run for U.S. Senate seat in 2020/
Giffords’ husband talks health care, climate change
PHOENIX — Former astronaut Mark Kelly waded into the political arena Tuesday, making a bid for U.S. Senate and hoping to prove to Arizonans he is about more than just gun control.
Kelly officially said he wants the seat formerly held by John McCain and currently occupied by Republican Martha McSally. She was appointed to fill the vacancy by Gov. Doug Ducey but has to run in 2020 for the final two years of McCain’s term.
While Kelly has achieved some national attention, particularly for commanding the space shuttle, he is better known in Arizona as the husband of former state senator and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. She left Congress after being shot in the head during a 2011 assassination attempt and mass shooting outside a Tucson grocery store that left her partially disabled and six others dead.
Since that time the pair have been on a crusade of sorts to convince state and federal lawmakers to enact what they believe are reasonable restrictions on weapons. That starts with closing what some have called the gun-show “loophole,” which exempts people who buy weapons from another individual from having to go through the same background check as they would if purchasing a firearm from a licensed dealer.
Now Kelly needs to convince Arizona voters that he’s about much more than that.
In an interview with Capitol Media Services, Kelly provided some specifics.
For example, he said physical barriers do make sense along some areas of the nearly 2,000-mile border with Mexico, notably in urban areas.
“We can’t have an incredibly porous border,” Kelly said.
“But in some places it would be better if we applied technology,” saying that’s the way problems were solved at NASA with “a science-based approach.”
Still, Kelly said he wants more enforcement border checkpoints.
“It’s too easy to illegally move drugs through these ports of entry,” he said.
Kelly said he got an important lesson in the importance of health care following the 2011 shooting and the hospitalization of his wife.
“She nearly died,” he said. “Her recovery took a long time.”
The issue, said Kelly, is that this kind of thing, whether it’s an injury or illness, happens to millions of others across the country.
“And often it happens when they don’t have health care coverage and it is devastating to them and their families,” he said. “It often ruins their lives.”
That, he said, goes beyond the physical problems, leaving crippling medical bills.
The top priority, said Kelly, is ensuring that people have access to health care and do not lose their coverage for pre-existing conditions. But he balked at whether he supports some type of single-payer system where the government is responsible for obtaining coverage for all residents.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m going to have to figure this out over time.”
Kelley’s other key issue is climate change.
“I’ve seen changes in this planet from orbit,” he said. The problem, said Kelly, is that people in Washington are not taking this seriously.
“Often, we have people in D.C. that don’t even believe in science,” he said.
Kelly stressed that while he is campaigning for the Democratic nomination he is coming at the campaign and the job with the idea of being independent and working across the aisle on key issues.