Now that President Joe Biden has officially dropped out of the presidential race, current VP Kamala Harris is all but guaranteed to be the Democrats’ nominee — and one of the biggest contenders to be her veep was once a NASA astronaut.
As numerous outlets have reported, Mark Kelly, the 60-year-old junior senator from Arizona and former NASA astronaut who traveled to the International Space Station multiple times during the 2000s and early 2010s, is one of the most exciting and electable candidates on the Democrats’ rumored shortlist of VP picks.
After serving in the Navy as a combat pilot and captain, Kelly spent a decade with NASA, often as a pilot aboard Space Shuttle missions and later as commander of the International Space Station. Though not the first astronaut-turned-politician, Kelly would be the first astronaut on a presidential ticket, and given that he and his twin Scott are the only siblings to ever have traveled to space, it would make this already-uncommon man all the more so.
Among Kelly’s bona fides are his strong and deeply personal convictions about gun control that took center stage after his wife Gabby Giffords, then a congresswoman representing Arizona, was shot and nearly killed by a would-be assassin in 2011.
In the wake of that Tuscon shooting, which also resulted in the deaths of six people and 13 others being wounded, and the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre just a year later, Giffords and Kelly launched a gun control campaign that has pushed for universal background checks and other restrictions on the purchase of deadly weapons.
While his twin brother is much more vocal about international politics, the senator and VP contender also has the kind of middle-of-the-road white man vibe that Harris and the Democrats are almost certainly looking for in a running mate, too.
Overall, Kelly seems not just like a compelling individual with a unique story, but also like someone the Democrats would want in their corner come November.
Plus, being an astronaut just might woo more voters than being a Yale graduate who exploited the poverty of their upbringing to score a spot on the New York Times‘ bestseller list.
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