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Sen. Mark Kelly Emerges As Unexpected VP Candidate For Kamala Harris (www.huffpost.com)

submitted 4 months ago by Rapidcreek@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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[-] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 130 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I'm Canadian so I don't really get a say in this, but he seems like a decent guy. Most astronauts are hard working, smart, and know to rely on other smart people to get tasks accomplished. His wife ain't no pushover either, nobody can question that couple's commitment to America.

[-] DrinkMonkey@lemmy.ca 68 points 4 months ago

It’s funny. Literally every astronaut I’ve met is exactly like this - quietly competent, affable, team player. As is the astronaut candidate I’ve met.

And yet…

Every person I’ve met who has been keen on becoming an astronaut or astronaut candidate has been an insufferable self-aggrandizing jerk face. Like, just awful people who suck all the air out of any room they’re in, expounding on how they (or the idea they’re selling) are the most amazing thing ever.

[-] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 22 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I take it you never met Lisa Nowak.

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[-] OlinOfTheHillPeople@lemmy.world 46 points 4 months ago

For those that don't remember:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Tucson_shooting

[-] AdamEatsAss@lemmy.world 12 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

What does this have to do with anything? Edit: figured it out, he is married to Gabby Giffords.

[-] tetrachromacy@lemmy.world 35 points 4 months ago

One of the people who was shot at this event is then-US representative Gabby Giffords. She was shot in the head and survived, but six people were killed. She is Mark Kelly's wife. I would presume they're going to have very strong opinions on gun control laws because of this.

[-] NegativeInf@lemmy.world 17 points 4 months ago

And he would def have something to say about the nature of political violence. A madman with a gun is no basis for doling out governmental powers.

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago

A madman with a gun is no basis for doling out governmental powers

Almost as bad as becoming king because some moistened bint lobs a scimitar at you!

[-] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 12 points 4 months ago

Not just an opinion, she/they started an entire organization to fight the gun lobbies.

https://giffords.org/

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[-] Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world 108 points 4 months ago

He does not support Medicare for all, and also does not support the green new deal, according to his wiki. He also supported increased oil drilling.

So he's pretty moderate right IMO, which sucks. I hope he's not her choice.

[-] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 39 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Yeah, see this is why I was so attached to Biden. The average Democrat isn’t really all that left. All this stuff with climate change and unions under Biden was very much an anomaly, and we’re probably returning to a certain amount of status quo with Harris.

Idk, I could be wrong; maybe she’s super left and this guy’s being floated as a gift to the New York Timeses of the world so the ticket will be acceptable to the six figure Manhattan shitheads that their editors are friends with, so they won’t print bullshit about her to try to lose her the election. And she still doesn’t want to destroy American democracy and all climate change remediation since Obama, which makes her worth voting for. But yeah we can expect a certain amount of corporate bullshit to come back into the equation now, I think. 😕

[-] Cosmos7349@lemmy.world 21 points 4 months ago

From what I've heard, it sounds like her senator policy stances were left of Joe? But chances are, her vp will prolly be more center, and who knows what her policies look like when she has to take stances that aren't representing just California.

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 12 points 4 months ago

Joe did a pretty good job as president courting progressives though. It was all much further left than his time in the senate. Still not far enough left for me, but better. I hope Harris follows that. The population generally is moving in that direction, so they need to.

[-] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 15 points 4 months ago

The average Democrat is to the left of their representatives on a lot of things, including climate change: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/09/what-the-data-says-about-americans-views-of-climate-change/

Kelly is not an average Democrat representative, he's definitely on the right end of the caucus.

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[-] Rapidcreek@lemmy.world 22 points 4 months ago

The Green New Deal was a white paper produced by a DC think tank. Obama implemented some of it. Biden implemented a lot of it through the climate change bill.

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[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 70 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

From wikipedia:

Kelly ran as a moderate in 2020 and voiced support for bipartisanship.[79][80][81] Since joining the Senate, he supported abolishing the filibuster in order to pass voting rights legislation[82] and a federal minimum wage increase to $15 per hour. He has criticized Joe Biden's approach to border security.[83][84] As of October 2022, Kelly has voted in line with Biden's stated position 94.5% of the time.[85]

Abortion

As a candidate in 2020, Kelly said he was "pro-choice" and was endorsed by Planned Parenthood.[86] He supports codifying Roe v. Wade into federal law.[87] He has said that late-stage abortions should be legally protected.[88]

Climate and environment

Kelly has voiced support for climate action, but said he "does not favor" the Green New Deal.[89] The League of Conservation Voters gave him a 97% score in 2021.[90] In 2022, Kelly also advocated for an expansion of oil drilling in the wake of rising gas prices.[91][92]

Guns

Kelly became an outspoken advocate for gun control following the attempted assassination of his wife, former U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords, at the 2011 Tucson shooting.[93]

Kelly voted for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in response to the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas.[94][95]

Health care

Kelly supports building on the Affordable Care Act to include a public health insurance option.[93][96] He opposes Medicare for All.[97]

Immigration

Of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, Kelly has said, "Dreamers are as American as anyone", and has expressed support for it.[98][86]

Trump administration

In February 2021, Kelly voted to convict Trump for incitement of insurrection in his second impeachment trial,[66] and has been outspoken in his disdain for him.[99]

[-] Sanctus@lemmy.world 11 points 4 months ago

A mixed bag, could be a hinderance or could get with the administration if its truly more left than Biden.

[-] Xanis@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago

This is interesting. People are calling him a mixed bag, yet looking into this he clearly supports expanding on existing solutions and has supported potential solutions that offer real-world results, such as expanded drilling. A realistic solution that makes sense in a swing state. The only outlier is Medicare for All and he'd probably say behind closed doors that he needed the votes and compromised with reinforcement of the ACA.

From what I remember and have seen recently, he strikes me as someone who is quietly playing the game. Becoming VP may allow him to step out and take more progressive stances. Or less progressive, of course. I'll have to look into him more, though it's my opinion he's a good pick, both for more favorable (for us) policies and for the larger election strategy.

I'll make an early call that he's more progressive than he seems at face value. Shame we don't have that bot which messages us X time later. I'd like to come back to this in the future, see if I was right.

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[-] Empricorn@feddit.nl 64 points 4 months ago

Sure. He's white, straight, and male, to balance out the ticket for racists/sexists/homophobes. Package him, ship him out, and let's defeat Trump and Project 2025!

[-] RedAggroBest@lemmy.world 73 points 4 months ago

Also astronaut, veteran, and fairly progressive.

[-] Hikermick@lemmy.world 38 points 4 months ago

And from a swing state

[-] Botzo@lemmy.world 24 points 4 months ago

And married to a victim of an assassination attempt.

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[-] blazera@lemmy.world 40 points 4 months ago

Not a fan of him teaming up with Manchin to promote more oil drilling.

[-] citrusface@lemmy.world 29 points 4 months ago

I'm just not a fan of Manchin.

[-] el_twitto@lemmy.world 20 points 4 months ago

Manchin can go to hell.

[-] wildncrazyguy138@fedia.io 9 points 4 months ago

Manchin got us to 50 in a deep red state. There are so many red states in middle America that, in the current political spectrum, it is nigh impossible to get to 50 dems in the senate.

I hear you, Manchin wasn’t my guy, but we would have got bunk from the Biden administration without him.

Something something, it’s easy to hate, harder to love.

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[-] ashok36@lemmy.world 37 points 4 months ago

Anecdote time: last week a 30 year old woman I work with stated with confidence she wouldn't be voting this year. Earlier today she told me she would be voting for Harris and asked who the vp would be. I said Shapiro, beshear, or Kelly. She looked up each of them on Wikipedia and immediately said something to the effect of, "why have I never heard of Kelly? I'd vote for this guy at the top of the ticket. I hope she picks him."

The guy's bio speaks for itself. Plus we'd get fun twins hijinks at the naval observatory and I think we as a nation need that.

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[-] ChronosTriggerWarning@lemmy.world 36 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I like him, but PLEASE don't vacate a Senate seat right now..! The balance is too tenuous at the moment. The Rs just lost a seat with Vance that could be filled with someone that isn't batshit crazy; let's not pull the same stunt in AZ.

E: I'm hearing that the way it works in AZ is that the person leaving their seat gets to assign the new member. If that's the case, then i withdraw my complaint.

[-] lennybird@lemmy.world 20 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Democratic Governor appoints new Senator to carry out remainder of term. It's safe. A special election would then happen in 2026.

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[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 32 points 4 months ago

I'm still shocked no one is taking seriously the "Democrats should pick Romney as Presidential choice because reasons" that has seriously been floated.

I wonder: how many times has someone given a big platform to someone so they can suggest that the Republicans should select a Democrat as their choice? Probably never? Why is it that people always say - with a straight face and very, very seriously - that it is Democrats that should run Republicans on their tickets, because something something unity and tone.

[-] wreel 17 points 4 months ago

Because it's not a good idea. They select him and don't convert Republican voters, lose a good portion of the progressive base and only get marginal, less reliable, swing voters with that move. That's at least a ten point loss right there.

It's going to be a safe bet like Josh Shapiro or, slightly less safe, Cooper.

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[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 10 points 4 months ago

I don't like that option, but I do think it would be effective to disrupt the Republican party. It'd really force a lot of modern "Republicans" to face what the party has become.

I think it'd be better to out him as VP under Harris than president though. To have a traditionally popular Republican candidate on the ticket would give them a huge platform to point out that the MAGA party is not the Republican party many supported before. It's just Fascists who stole it because people were too dumb to pay attention.

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[-] assembly@lemmy.world 26 points 4 months ago

I would love to see Mark Kelly as VP and then campaign for president.

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[-] BluJay320@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 4 months ago

Not a fan, and I don’t like his relative lack of political experience. However, his status as a white male veteran who is the husband of Gabby Gifford could win some points.

Hate that it comes to that, but this is what we get. Fuck, I just want out of this shithole.

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[-] TheRealJefe@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago

Unexpected

HuffPo be huffing something hard.

[-] pastabatman@lemmy.world 11 points 4 months ago

I'd like it to be mayor Pete. Young, smart, well spoken, Rhodes scholar, veteran. Plus it would set him up for a serious run at the presidency in the future.

[-] chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago

I don't hate him, but he's already 60. That means that if Harris goes 1 term and loses, or goes 2 terms and can't run again, Kelly is 68 before he can run himself, which he will inevitably do. If he's 68 when he starts, then he is running the country in his 70s and we have made 0 progress on this age problem that seems to plague presidential candidates. Beshear is 46, which keeps him in his 50s for most of his terms.

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[-] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 10 points 4 months ago

It's pretty odd to me that people feel like they really need to shore up the "moderate" lane. Boosting the AZ chances makes perfectly fine sense, but Harris isn't expected to be particularly progressive. She's a middle of the road Democrat, so unless she's going to come out fighting for big progressive change, just run her as a solidly competent Democrat. No need to find a new Joe Lieberman.

Plus, for the love of god, don't give up an iffy senate seat.

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[-] Rapidcreek@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago

Let's see what you folks missed...

Navy combat pilot. Would be the first of those in the administration since HW.

Arizona would be a nice get electoral wise.

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this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2024

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