Mark Kelly grabs the political spotlight and stirs talk of a White House run

Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona is getting an early spin on the carousel of 2028 Democratic hopefuls.

The former astronaut has started to become a familiar face on the talk show circuit, stirring Beltway chatter after squaring off with President Trump over military strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.

Democrats cheered when Mr. Kelly condemned Mr. Trump’s recent threats of criminal charges or a court-martial against him for telling military members to disobey illegal orders. He called Mr. Trump the worst president in American history.

He also got kudos from Democrats for branding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “historically unqualified.”

Mr. Kelly is a retired Navy captain and husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, a survivor of gun violence. He has quietly traveled to some of the early primary states, perhaps testing the waters for a presidential run.

He demonstrated in his high-profile reelection campaign that he could raise money.

“He looks great on paper,” said Mike Noble, an Arizona-based pollster. “If Kelly is flirting with a presidential run, Arizona voters would say he’s doing it like an engineer, quietly, cautiously with the safety switch on.”

Mr. Kelly has long cast himself as a pragmatic problem solver. He isn’t a bomb-thrower, which helps explain why he remains relatively unknown nationally.

Some early 2028 polls don’t even include him. Instead, they spotlight former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic front-runners.

Govs. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, along with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, also generate more chatter than Mr. Kelly.

So does Sen. Ruben Gallego, his Arizona seatmate, who has also dropped into early presidential primary states.

Republicans dismissed the idea that Mr. Kelly could be a viable contender.

“He has more baggage than a Delta turnstile,” Republican strategist Hogan Gidley said on a recent episode of “2WAY.” “It’s a lot, and it’s bad, and people in D.C. know it.”

Mr. Gidley didn’t say what damaging information was known about Mr. Kelly.

“Could Kelly be a formidable presidential candidate in the 2028 general election?” Mr. Gidley said. “I don’t think he gets to the nomination.”

Arizona-based Republican strategist Barrett Marson said Mr. Kelly still needs to prove he is a contender.

“Mark Kelly‘s biggest challenge is keeping this momentum going,” he said. “Donald Trump won’t make him the lead foil every weekly episode of ‘As 2028 Turns.’ So he has to find a way after this controversy blows over to stay relevant.”

At the same time, it is easy to find Democrats still lamenting that Ms. Harris, the party’s 2024 nominee, chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz over Mr. Kelly as her running mate.

To them, Mr. Kelly is the steady hand, a Navy combat veteran and retired astronaut, the opposite of Mr. Trump’s unpredictable style.

Mr. Kelly leaned into that contrast during his recent clash with Mr. Trump. “While the president was driving the Taj Mahal casino into bankruptcy, I was getting shot at over Iraq and Kuwait,” he said.

The feud began after Mr. Kelly appeared in a digital ad with other Democratic lawmakers, all of whom were veterans of the military and intelligence services, urging military members to disobey illegal orders.

Mr. Trump, who had authorized strikes against alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, accused the Democrats of “seditious behavior, punishable by death.”

The Pentagon said it was investigating Mr. Kelly for possible breach of military law. Mr. Hegseth, meanwhile, floated the idea of recalling the senator to active-duty status so he can face court-martial proceedings over his appearance in the social media video.

Mr. Kelly didn’t flinch. “President Trump is trying to silence me, threatening to kill me for saying what is true, and he sent his Secretary of Defense after me, and it is not going to work,” he said.

Urging Mr. Trump to dial back the rhetoric, he invoked his own family’s experience with political violence.

“My wife, Gabby, was shot in the head and nearly died while speaking with her constituents,” he said. “The president should understand this too. He has been the target of political violence himself.”

He added, “But we know Donald Trump. He uses every single opportunity to divide us.”

Mr. Kelly seized on a 9-year-old video in which Mr. Hegseth delivered a similar warning about illegal military actions.

“Pete Hegseth says he’s going to court-martial me for saying the same exact thing he said 9 years ago,” Mr. Kelly said on social media. “What changed for Pete? Well, to start, he spends all day thinking about how he can suck up to Trump. When Trump says jump, he says how high.”