VP prospect Mark Kelly confident Democrats would win a 2026 race to fill his Senate seat

Sen. Mark Kelly downplayed worries about Democrats needing to win another Senate election if he joins a winning Democratic presidential ticket, addressing one of the more persistent concerns of his candidacy.

Speaking to CNN on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Kelly, D-Ariz., said his party could manage a 2026 special election to replace him if that became necessary.

“Democrats have been really good about winning statewide races in the state of Arizona,” Kelly said, pointing to wins in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 cycles.

“We figured this out. We have a strong state party, and I imagine we’re going to be successful from now going into the future. … I don’t think it’ll be an issue. I think we’ve got a great slate of other Democrats, but this is not about me.”

'This is not about me': What Sen. Mark Kelly is saying about VP speculation

Kelly won his Senate seat in 2020 in a special election to finish the final two years of the term the late U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., won in 2016. McCain died of brain cancer in 2018 and, because of the timing of the vacancy, the seat was temporarily filled by fellow Republicans until the 2020 election.

Kelly won a full six-year term in 2022 and isn’t scheduled to be on the ballot again until 2028.

But he is among those being vetted by Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign as a possible running mate. He would remain a sitting senator even if he’s picked and Arizona wouldn’t hold a special election for that seat unless Harris and Kelly win in November.

Because the Senate remains closely divided, Democrats can’t relish the idea of a special election for a seat they already have. At the same time, if Kelly is picked, it is presumably because Harris sees him as helping her win a race suddenly scrambled with the departure of President Joe Biden from the ticket.

Arizona Democrats are hoping for a fourth straight U.S. Senate win this year in the race to succeed the retiring U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz.

Beginning with Sinema’s 2018 election, Democrats ended a 30-year electoral drought. In that time, Republicans won nine straight races beginning in 1992.

Kelly said his current plans for next week are “a full schedule in Arizona.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Mark Kelly says Democrats could handle race to fill his Senate seat