Mark Kelly

Mark Edward Kelly (born February 21, 1964) is an American politician, retired astronaut, and United States Navy captain. A member of the Democratic Party, he has been the junior U.S. senator from Arizona since 2020. In 2022, he won reelection to a full term.

Kelly flew combat missions during the Gulf War as a naval aviator before being selected as a NASA Space Shuttle pilot in 1996. He flew his first space mission in 2001 as pilot of STS-108, then piloted STS-121 in 2006, and commanded STS-124 in 2008 and STS-134 (the final mission of Space Shuttle ''Endeavour'') in 2011. In January 2011, Kelly's wife, then-Arizona Representative Gabby Giffords, was shot and nearly killed in an assassination attempt in Arizona. Kelly retired from the Navy and NASA that October. In 2013, Kelly and Giffords founded a nonprofit political action committee, Americans for Responsible Solutions (later merged into Giffords), which campaigned for gun control measures like universal background checks.

On February 12, 2019, Kelly announced his candidacy for Arizona's Class 3 U.S. Senate seat in the 2020 special election. He won the Democratic primary on August 4, 2020, and defeated incumbent Republican Martha McSally in the general election on November 3, becoming the first Democrat to win this seat since 1962. Kelly was sworn in on December 2. In 2022, he was elected to a full term in office, defeating Republican challenger Blake Masters. Democrat Kyrsten Sinema's departure from the Senate in January 2025 will make Kelly the senior senator from Arizona. He was reportedly one of the three leading contenders for the Democratic vice presidential nomination in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, along with Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro and Minnesota governor Tim Walz. Presidential nominee Kamala Harris chose Walz. Provided by Wikipedia