Washington, D.C. – Throughout his 2020 campaign, Mark Kelly pledged to be a bold, nonpartisan, independent-minded senator for Arizonans. So imagine the disappointment Arizonans are feeling as Mark Kelly puts his cowardly partisanship on full display now that he is in the Senate.
Instead of putting the needs of Arizonans first, Mark Kelly has proven that he is nothing more than a reliable vote for Chuck Schumer’s radical, far-Left agenda. In fact, Mark Kelly has voted with Chuck Schumer 98% of the time — and with Bernie Sanders 94% of the time.
On the campaign trail, Mark Kelly repeatedly touted his “independent,” nonpartisan spirit:
- “Folks want change, I think they want independence. They want people who are independent from corporate PACs and corporations and their political parties. And change is good.” (Mark Kelly Interview, AZ Family, 2/16/2020)
- “My goal here is to, if elected, I’m going to stand up for Arizona in a nonpartisan, nonpolitical, and independent way.” (Mark Kelly Interview, PBS Arizona, 7/23/19)
- “I’ve seen the direction of our country over the several years, you know, I think I have something to offer. I’m somebody who cares about independence …” (Mark Kelly, The View, 9/25/19)
- “Washington is broken and Arizona needs independent leaders focused on solutions” (Mark Kelly, “Why I’m Running,” Medium, 1/4/2020)
- “I’ve never looked at things through a partisan lens, and I believe Arizona needs an independent voice representing them in the Senate.” (Mark Kelly, “Why I’m Running,” Medium, 1/4/2020)
However, once he made it to the Senate, Mark Kelly replaced independence with spinelessness. Since June 2020, Mark Kelly and his staff have dodged questions on the filibuster eleven times, including seven times as a sitting Senator:
- June 28, 2020: “‘When he’s elected, Mark will consider how any changes to the way the Senate does business could help improve the lives of Arizonans,’ campaign spokesman Jacob Peters said.”
- August 19, 2020: “I’ll study the [filibuster] issue, clearly. It’s a big decision, I think everybody recognizes it as a big decision. It’s not in the Constitution, it’s been used stop progress by both parties. So, it’s something that I will take very seriously and I’ll look at both sides.”
- September 22, 2020: “It’s now been well over a month since Kelly’s non-answer to The Republic’s reporters [about the filibuster]. So I called his campaign spokesman on Tuesday, pressing for an answer to a perfectly legitimate question. Here’s what I got: ‘I don’t think I’ll have much to expand beyond that answer,’ spokesman Jacob Peters told me, referring to Kelly’s Gaggle interview. “‘But I’ll circle back around to you.’”
- September 23, 2020: “I mean, [the filibuster] really shouldn’t be part of the discussion. It’s also very hypothetical and it’s kind of more of the same stuff from a broken Washington.”
- October 6, 2020: “Hey, if this comes up as a discussion if I’m elected to the United States Senate, I will give it thoughtful consideration and I’m going to do what is in the best interest of Arizonans and the country. Not what is in the best interest of one political party or the other.”
- January 29, 2021: “Well, like I said, you know, bipartisanship is really important to me. I think it’s important to Arizonans too. We just want to make the place work.”
- March 17, 2021: “Sen. Mark Kelly, whose office did not respond to request for comment, has only vaguely said he supports ‘bipartisanship’ when asked about eliminating the procedure.”
- March 23, 2021: “Sen. Mark Kelly said he would weigh any changes to the Senate rules against ‘how this affects my constituents in Arizona, and is this good for our country or not’”
- April 1, 2021: “Well, when we get to the point where we’re going to have, you know, a serious discussion about this, I’ll make a decision based on what’s in the best interest of Arizona and the country.”
- June 8, 2021: “Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat up for reelection next year, indicated he hasn’t decided if he backs lowering the 60-vote requirement or if his position is in line with Sinema’s opposition to changing the rules. While Kelly said Tuesday, he is ‘generally a believer in change,’ the freshman Democrat said: ‘I’ll evaluate any change to our rules, regardless of what they are, based on what’s in the best interest of Arizona, and the best interest of our country.’”
- June 23, 2021: “Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who is up for reelection next year, declined to take a position on the filibuster Tuesday. ‘Like any changes to the rules, when it comes up, I’ll take a close look at it,’ Kelly told reporters.”
The only people who have gotten anything close to a straight answer from Mark Kelly on the filibuster are his D.C. donors:
“Yeah, sir, certainly we need a change. We’re not we’re not going to keep doing the same thing and get a different result,” Kelly responded. He added: “There’s no other democracy, as far as I know, that works the way the United States Senate does. So structurally, it’s got major issues. I would like to see us, you know, change the rules.”
Statement from NRSC Spokeswoman Katharine Cooksey: “Mark Kelly’s phony independence is catching up to him. As a candidate, he danced around any clear answers about the filibuster, and he is doing the exact same thing now as a senator. Whether or not Mark Kelly supports abolishing the legislative filibuster should be an easy ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question, but he is too spineless to give Arizonans a straight answer.”
###