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Could U.S. Senator Mark Kelly be the next president?

Written on March 5, 2026 by in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents

U.S. Senator Mark Kelly

On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona held an exclusive call with VoteVets, which was live-streamed on the VoteVets YouTube channel. Kelly had plenty to say about Donald Trump‘s conduct of his new Iran War, as well as affordability and other issues here at home. Kelly’s high-profile appearance raises the question of whether he wants to run for president, and if so, what his chances are.

Sen. Kelly has an impressive record of service to America. The son of two police officers and member of a military family, he served in the U.S. Navy for 25 years as a test pilot and aviator, earning numerous medals. During Operation Desert Storm (the 1990-91 Gulf War against Iraq), he flew 39 combat missions over Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Then Kelly became a NASA space shuttle pilot and commander aboard shuttles Endeavour and Discovery. In 2011, Kelly’s wife, U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, was shot in the head and critically wounded by a gunman who killed six people and wounded 12 others in an assassination attempt. During her recovery, she and Mark started Americans for Responsible Solutions (now the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence).

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Sarah Palin loses gun scope court case as Republican shoots at Gabby Giffords’ husband in ad

Written on February 17, 2022 by in Democratic Messaging, Media Watch, Republican Messaging

The Palin/violence connection runs deep

As we have mentioned on multiple occasions, one of the lowest points in Republican Death Culture politics was Sarah Palin‘s 2010 ad which placed gun scope crosshairs on nearly a score of U.S. Congressional districts, one of which was Arizona’s 8th district, then served by Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords. Palin introduced the ad to her Twitter followers with the gun analogy “Don’t retreat, instead- RELOAD!” Several months later, Rep. Giffords was shot in the head, six others were killed, and another 12 were wounded at Giffords’ outdoor political event in Tuscon.

While it has not been proven that the Arizona shooter was directly prompted by Palin’s gun scope ad, many people made this connection, and felt that the shooting was a natural result of Palin’s ad. Of the numerous pieces written about this, one was a New York Times editorial which stated that “the link … was clear” between Palin’s gun scope ad and the subsequent shooting of Giffords. Palin sued the New York Times for defamation over the editorial, but on Tuesday, she lost her court case. The jury rendered a verdict in favor of the Times after the judge in the case ruled that Palin had failed to prove that the Times had acted with the required element of “actual malice” towards her.

At the same time, however, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jim Lamon, who is running this year in Arizona against Gabby Giffords’ husband, Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Kelly, has been airing an ugly, violent TV and social media ad. The ad features Lamon shooting at lookalike actors portraying President Joe Biden, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senator Kelly. The dangers here are obvious and almost too ominous to think about.

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Five things the Democrats need to do after the election

Written on November 5, 2020 by in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents

Simple concept that GOP now opposes

While the 2020 presidential election and various other election races are still being fought, there are already some lessons to be learned. In particular, based on the Republicans’ behavior thus far, Democrats need to do some things differently to match and defeat their opponents going forward. Assuming that Joe Biden, currently well ahead in both electoral and popular votes, defeats Donald Trump for the presidency and/or Democrats at least tie the Republicans for control of the U.S. Senate, here are five things the Democrats should do as soon as they take power:

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Joe Biden’s big week

Written on April 15, 2020 by in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents

Barack Obama and Joe Biden teamed up again this week.

Presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee Joe Biden has had a big start to his week. On Monday, Senator Bernie Sanders endorsed Biden’s candidacy, just five days after ending (the modern parlance is “suspending”) his own presidential campaign. Sanders, whom we have criticized in the past, deserves kudos for ending his campaign and endorsing Biden before the Democratic National Convention, if any, takes place. In 2016, even though Sanders was similarly all but eliminated from a mathematical standpoint by Hillary Clinton at this point, he kept his campaign going through the convention, which led to a lot of ugliness and divisive attacks that arguably hurt Clinton in the general election against Donald Trump. This time around, although Sanders regrettably is asking supporters still to vote for him in the remaining primaries so that he can amass more delegates and possibly gain more liberal concessions from Biden, at least Democratic voters, office holders, and other officials can now make the shift toward the general election campaign against Trump.

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