Sen. Kelly says he is considering running for president

Right now, the Democrat ticket is a two-horse race.

That may soon change, however, as Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) is sick of being targeted by the Trump administration.

He is now considering throwing his hat into the ring for the 2028 election, and I think he could really shake up the race for both sides of the aisle.

Suing the Pentagon

Kelly was among a handful of Democrats who posted a video encouraging members of the service to disobey direct orders.

Dems believe the drug boat strikes are illegal, and while Kelly has never outright called the orders illegal, he was using service members as pawns to get some national headlines.

In turn, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth threatened to recall Kelly for the purpose of court-martialing him.

Kelly responded with a lawsuit, which stated, "The First Amendment forbids the government and its officials from punishing disfavored expression or retaliating against protected speech. That prohibition applies with particular force to legislators speaking on matters of public policy."

Thinking About Running

Kelly broke the news on Wednesday that he is considering running, telling CNN, “I still think it needs to be the right person for the moment, and we don’t know what that moment is yet.”

He later added, “I feel this obligation more so than anything I’ve ever done in my life, to fight back against an unhinged president and a weaponization of the federal government against the constitutional rights of a million retired veterans.”

To this point, Kelly has never even been mentioned, but he is starting to pop up in polling, which I will get into more in just a second.

I will say this: while Harris and Newsom are not popular across the aisle, Kelly is a different story and could pose a major threat if he can get past those two.

Current Polling

Kelly has never been on the radar in terms of presidential candidates, but he did show up on one recently, hitting the board at 7%, and that is without a single word ever being said about him entering the race.

While Buttigieg and AOC are getting some grip, they are mostly in the single digits, while Newsom has surged to the lead, followed by Kamala Harris. But even with his lead, Newsom tops out around 35%, so he is far from dominating this race.

Point being, there is definitely room for someone to come in here and take charge if they can get Dems behind them and be attractive to independent and moderate voters as well.

If I were Newsom and Harris, I would be terrified of Kelly running. Neither of them is a veteran, let alone an astronaut, so that hero angle will clearly play in Kelly’s favor. To me, he is the scariest name on the board right now.