A Harris-Kelly team? Here's what happened when they hit the campaign trail together
Democrats pondering a possible presidential ticket headed by Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly can rewind to a campaign event last month where they appeared together.
It happened in Las Vegas and came the day after President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance startled the nation.
As it turned out, Kelly, D-Ariz., took the same stage as Harris to urge Nevadans to support the Biden-Harris ticket and reelect U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev.
Kelly displayed a willingness to talk tough — he referred to former President Donald Trump as "a convicted criminal" — and to invoke the 2011 attempted assassination of his wife, former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., to make a point about current policy choices.
It was a reminder of Kelly’s usually relaxed campaign demeanor, sprinkling his remarkable biography with sharp partisan barbs.
If the event was remembered before Kelly became a subject of rampant vice-presidential speculation, it was for Harris flubbing Kelly’s home state in the kind of mistake that was now cause for alarm when it involved Biden.
Harris name-checked U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., whom she praised for “doing an extraordinary job as a senator.” She thanked New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for her “leadership.”
In between, Harris acknowledged Kelly.
“Senator Mark Kelly, who is just always fighting for the people of Nevada and using his lifelong dedication to our country in a way that is about service and uplifting so many people,” Harris said.
Kelly didn’t address the debate that ultimately led Biden to quit the race.
Instead, he provided a kind of semi-celebrity endorsement for Rosen. He invoked his past as an astronaut and sent his well wishes from Giffords.
He lent his voice to supporting Biden and Harris, linking them as a team at least twice.
He said they both want to “fix our broken immigration system and keep families together.” By contrast, Trump’s plan is “to deport millions of our neighbors,” Kelly said, drawing boos.
Kelly said Arizona and Nevada share some things politically, such as Latino communities that have outsized significance.
“Both of us are going to play a very large part in the role of determining the direction of this country,” Kelly said. “So, that’s why I’m here. Because Nevada, Arizona and our country face a choice, a choice between continuing the progress we are making or going backwards."
“And people, we do not want to go backwards.”
That provided the opening for Kelly to say, “I like to go forward at, like, 17,500 miles per hour in one direction: up and up.”
A look at Mark Kelly: Senator could bring pluses, minuses to Democratic presidential ticket: What to know
Kelly framed the election choice as involving women having abortion rights or a national abortion ban and a tax on birth control and in-vitro fertilization.
Kelly turned serious when he noted that Giffords had been scheduled for an IVF appointment “on a Monday morning. And on Saturday morning, she was shot in the head.”
It drew shudders from the crowd and is part of a personal experience that he and Giffords discussed last month in a story for “People” magazine.
What to know: Joe Biden was struggling in Arizona. Could Kamala Harris do better against Donald Trump?
“It’s amazing to think how these two things can actually be interconnected,” Kelly said. “We’ve got Donald Trump, who’s out there fighting to take away those rights from you. It’s almost unfathomable.”
Kelly extended the political choice to continuing to bring manufacturing jobs back to America or “another Trump tax giveaway to the biggest corporations and the wealthiest Americans.”
It was a nod to the CHIPS and Science Act law he helped shape that uses taxpayer subsidies to bring semiconductor production to the U.S. That law has provided at least $6.6 billion to help defray construction costs of the $65 billion TSMC chip plants in Desert Ridge. That project is billed as the largest single foreign direct investment projects in U.S. history.
Kelly said Trump’s tax strategy is to “double down on tax cuts for rich people” and is only looking out for himself. His mention of Trump’s conviction in New York for fraudulent business records growing out of his secret affair with a porn star led the crowd to chant, “Lock him up!”
Kelly ended the chant, saying, “Folks, all we have to do is vote.”
He told the crowd the election is about teamwork and mentioned his four space flights and 39 combat missions as a Navy pilot in the 1991 Gulf War in Iraq.
“Never once did I do that by myself,” he said of those experiences. “Not once. It took a team of people working together toward a common goal. That’s what we need now. We need you, all of you.”
A closer look: Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly once said he never aspired to politics, but 'I do get asked a lot'
Kelly praised Rosen as “a great friend” who sits next to him on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“She is, without a doubt, one of the best most bipartisan senators in the United States Senate,” he said to applause. He also confided that Rosen often shares a sandwich with him as well.
While Kelly avoided the debate from the day before, Harris did not.
She admitted the debate didn’t go well, though she didn’t hint at how damaging it would prove to be for Biden.
“So, last night, President Joe Biden and Donald Trump had their first debate,” Harris said. “And earlier today, the president said himself it was not his best performance.
“But there are three things that were true yesterday before the debate that are still true today. Let’s level set on this, all right?
“First, the stakes of this race could not be higher. Second, the contrast in this election could not be more stark. And third, we believe in our president, Joe Biden, and we believe in what he stands for.”
Her words led to cheers of “Four more years!”
Harris also sought to calm concerns about Biden’s fitness for office.
“Nevada, as vice president, I see Joe Biden when the cameras are on and when the cameras are off; in the Oval Office, negotiating bipartisan deals. I see him in the Situation Room, keeping our country safe; on the world stage, meeting with foreign leaders who often ask for his advice,” she said.
Opinions: Kamala Harris doesn't scare Republicans, but Mark Kelly absolutely should
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kamala Harris and Mark Kelly hit campaign trail at least once already
