Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) told CNN he is seriously considering running for president in 2028.
“I still think it needs to be the right person for the moment, and we don’t know what that moment is yet,” he said in a wide-ranging interview published Wednesday.
The retired astronaut and Navy officer is embroiled in a legal fight with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who Kelly sued earlier this month for attempting to censure him and lower his retirement rank after he participated in a video urging service members to reject illegal orders.
Arguing the Pentagon’s retaliation violates the independence of the legislative branch and an apolitical military, Kelly asked a federal judge to block the moves and declare them unlawful.
“The First Amendment forbids the government and its officials from punishing disfavored expression or retaliating against protected speech,” the 46-page complaint reads. “That prohibition applies with particular force to legislators speaking on matters of public policy.”
While speaking with CNN, Kelly defended himself a bit more colorfully, saying, “I’m a f—ing US senator. I have, in theory — in theory — supercharged First Amendment speech rights under the speech and debate clause, and they’re trampling on that.”
President Trump attacked Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers who participated in the video released in November, saying they had committed sedition and suggesting they should be sentenced to death.
Kelly, whose wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), was shot in the head during an event with constituents in 2011, has recounted threats made to his office since the president’s remarks. He told CNN that his wife has also received threats and police have to patrol outside his adult children’s houses.
But Kelly, who was on the shortlist of contenders for former Vice President Kamala Harris to select as her running mate in 2024, is still campaigning nationwide as the midterm elections — and the 2028 Democratic primary — grow closer.
“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,” he told CNN.