Kemi Osukoya
August 6, 2024
After a two-week whirlwind of vetting potential candidates, Vice President Kamala Harris most likely will reveal Senator Mike Kelly as her pick for running mate for her presidential ticket today at a Harris for President campaign event in Pennsylvania.
While the Harris campaign team and everyone with knowledge of the vetting process continues to keep quiet about who the VP pick is, Kelly’s qualifications and experience stand out the most of the finalists and balance out VP Harris on both domestic and foreign policy issues, according to our review of the final three candidates
Harris met with all her final candidates in Washington over the weekend.
Kelly wrote on the X platform on Sunday evening: “Whether it was from my time in the Navy and at NASA, serving in the United States Senate, or visiting our troops overseas, I’ve learned that when your country asks you to serve, you always answer the call.”
A former U.S. Navy pilot and astronaut who has spent his life serving the nation from the front lines of battlegrounds in conflict zones to the forefront of advancing humanity through space exploration and innovation to leading calls for gun control and a national ban on assault weapons on the streets as a U.S. Senator and the husband of a gun violence survivor. His wife, former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot and injured during an attempted assassination on her life.
Kelly’s appeal as a centrist in a swing state will not only appeal to both independent voters as well as anti-Trump Republicans but also his proximity and knowledge as a Senator from Arizona—a state on the frontline of one of the nation’s thorniest problems: Immigration, will significantly boost Harris’ and democrat stand on immigration.
Arizona is also one of the U.S. border states dealing with immigration issues, and he was one of the Senators who have urged for comprehensive immigration reforms. He was at the White House in early June when President Biden issued new executive actions under the Immigration and Nationality Act to secure the U.S. Southern border, barring migrants who cross the Southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum.
Unlike other obvious or attention-grabbing potential candidates, Kelly’s manners complement Harris’. He’s also viewed favorably by his colleagues from both parties and hasn’t provoked inter-party ire, another important attribute that would come in handy as the VP is the head of the U.S. Senate.
Kelly was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2020 after winning in a special election against Republican Martha McSally and has since been reelected in a regular Senate race, most recently in 2024 against Peter Thiel’s funded candidate Blake Masters.
On the foreign policy aspect: as VP, Kelly’s knowledge and experiences on the frontlines in battlegrounds in conflict zones and Space exploration will serve as great counsel to Harris as the U.S. continues to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom and pushback against Putin’s aggression as well as the U.S. mitigate other foreign threats, including from China.
With the U.S. determined to return astronauts to the Moon by 2026 and on to Mars through NASA’s Artemis program—a U.S.-led moon exploration coalition program chaired by VP Kamala Harris under the White House National Space Council, Kelly’s strong experience as an astronaut will come in handy in continuing to build a coalition for the Space program as well as in efforts to stop space powers from engaging in space missile war using direct-ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) missiles capable of smashing spacecraft into thousands of bits of high-velocity.
