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Mark Kelly
Arizona
Senator since 2020
Challenged by Blake Masters
“Corporate influence in Washington is standing in the way of progress on everything from lowering prescription drug costs to tackling climate change. That’s why I introduced legislation to put an end to the corporate PACs that corrupt our political system.”
Mark Kelly’s defeat of Trumpy Republican incumbent Senator Martha McSally solidifies Arizona’s Senate seats in the hands of Democrats, Kelly and his senior Kyrsten Sinema (elected in 2018). This restores hope for many Arizonians, who haven’t had two Democratic senators in more than six decades. A former astronaut and retired U.S. Navy captain, Kelly led missions in space and as a naval aviator in combat. Kelly is the husband of former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, whose heart he won during the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations when he managed to lasso a calf on a tour of a Tucson ranch. Their first date was at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence because Giffords was multi-tasking. In 2011 Giffords was nearly killed when she was shot in the head in an assassination attempt. The tragedy upended both of their lives. Kelly left NASA to be with his wife during her recovery. Since the assassination attempt, they have dedicated their time to preventing gun violence. Together they founded “Giffords,” a gun-safety organization, which has helped pass nearly 300 gun-safety laws around the country.
—Micaela Durand
Micaela Durand is a filmmaker and writer who was born in Argentina, raised on Long Island and lives in New York City.
Voting Record
In light of crimes that surged against Asian Americans during the pandemic, Kelly co-sponsored the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act in March 2021 with Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), which was signed into law this month. The legislation addresses the rise of violence and hate crimes, particularly against Asian Americans, and would strengthen hate-crime reporting in order to make it more accessible at the local and state levels as well as making reporting resources available in multiple languages. It would also expand public education about hate crimes.
Kelly voted for a resolution to impeach Trump for inciting the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and led the House of Representatives towards impeaching Trump, marking the first time in U.S. history that a president has been impeached more than once.
Despite Kelly’s campaign, which advocated for every Arizonian, regardless of race, to live free of discrimination, he voted for an amendment to the Coronavirus Relief Package to block stimulus checks for undocumented workers. This was a shock to the Latino community who rallied to elect him. Undocumented immigrants have not received any federal aid throughout the pandemic and data shows they have been disproportionally affected by Covid-19.
Policy Positions
Healthcare
Supports a public healthcare option that would compete with private health care, in lieu of Medicare-for-all. Wants to lower cost for prescription drugs and crack down on bad actors of the opioid epidemic.
Police Reform
Not in favor of defunding the police. Believes in reforming policing by changing enforcement tactics.
Climate Change
As an engineer and astronaut he understands climate change is real and a threat to our economy and livelihoods. Supports policies to create clean energy jobs and lead the way towards a sustainable economy.
Gun Laws
Advocates for tougher gun laws, background checks, and stronger domestic violence legislation.
Endorsements
Foreign Policy Action Network
Human Rights Campaign
LGBTQ Nation
Planned Parenthood
Coral Evans, Flagstaff Mayor
:"Arizona is on the front lines of climate change and we need to elect people who will make decisions based on sound scientific facts in order to protect Northern Arizona’s forests and Arizona’s water supply for future generations."
Challenged by Blake Masters
Tech billionaire Peter Thiel wants to demolish and replace American democracy. His latest project involves grooming and heavily funding his own political puppets to make it happen. Blake Masters is just one of the emerging Republican candidates steeped in the Thielist vision. Young, handsome, yet unmistakably gaunt, Masters embodies a dangerous new tilt in the far-right movement—one that reaches into dark recesses beyond conservatism. His political ideology is disturbing and fascinating if not bluntly antidemocratic, with neo-reactionary blogger Curtis Yarvin (also known as Mencius Moldbug) and the Unabomber among his influences.
Intellectually sharp with a penchant for fringe beliefs, Masters represents what many call the ‘New Right,’ a youthful, militant anti-establishment strain of Trumpism. His Trump-endorsed August victory in the Arizona Senate primary indicates how the former president’s undermining of the status quo has left room for the rise of extremist shift within the GOP. Unlike the outward lunacy characteristic to Trump, however, nascent ‘New Right’ figures like Masters display a facade of normal-guy likability. And they hope to leverage their charm and palatability towards total ideological takeover.
Like Thiel, Masters was once a libertarian. He attended Stanford University and as undergraduate expressed support for ideas like unhindered immigration and the elimination of the Supreme Court. Things changed for Masters after he took a class taught by Thiel. Captivated by Thiel’s brilliance, Masters kept painstaking lecture notes that later became the blueprint for Thiel’s book Zero to One, for which he is credited as a co-author. Masters became Thiel’s perfect protégé, and assisted in Trump’s political ascension while working at Thiel’s hedge fund and serving as president of the Thiel Foundation (posts he only left earlier this year.) This relationship paid off in the long run—when it was Masters’ turn to run for office, Thiel funneled $15 million into a pro-Masters super PAC. If this funding strategy seems familiar, it’s because it is—Thiel has also pumped $15 million into the Ohio Senate campaign of Republican J.D. Vance, who, like Masters, is a former employee.
Despite his fondness for spewing incendiary statements, Masters doesn’t see himself as a disruptor. Rather, his Thielist aim is transformation by any means necessary. He’s a staunch nationalist who espouses the white supremacist conspiracy "great replacement" theory, opposes abortion rights and marriage equality, and paints immigration as invasion. He claims the 2020 election was stolen and that the January 6 insurrection was concocted by the FBI. Ironically, he denounces Big Tech while being funded by one of its most successful byproducts. While TV host Tucker Carlson has heralded Masters as the “future” of the GOP, Democrats see something alarmingly sinister. What Thiel, Masters, and their ideological influences have in common is an investment in eroding the nation-state, overturning democracy as we know it, and bestowing unmitigated power to the likes of philosopher-kings. “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible,” Thiel wrote in 2009. Over a decade later, he may be using his political pawns (Masters and Vance included) as a means to entwine his unorthodox views with our reality.
–Iman Husain
Current Polling
Date: October 26, 2022 Source: FiveThirtyEight.com
State: Arizona
As both a former astronaut who has had to rely on science to stay alive and having had to endure Arizona summers (in 2020 Arizona heat killed more than 300 people in Maricopa County alone), Kelly has been vocal about the fact that climate change is a crisis. Kelly has advocated that predominantly people of color are affected severely by climate change. Arizona Latinos account for 30 percent of the state’s population. Toxic chemicals have polluted the groundwater of Phoenix for decades in areas that are mostly home to Latino communities.
Just five months into his term, Kelly has convened regular conference calls with an informal group of Latino members to allow for lively dialogue to get a sense of what is needed in their communities. After visiting the border, where a surge of migrants has overwhelmed shelters and services, Kelly called for more resources to house migrants as well as a transportation system to get migrants to Phoenix and beyond. Kelly supports Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allows children brought to the U.S. to avoid deportation, get a driver’s license, and to work.
As an advocate for making climate change a national priority, Kelly’s stated legislative goals call for the expansion of renewable energy. He is in opposition to uranium mining around Grand Canyon National Park. He condemned Trump for removing the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement.