Possible VP Pick Mark Kelly has Jewish connections besides Gabby Giffords, his Jewish wife
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) on June 4, 2024. Photo by Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh July 22, 2024
Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, one of the most talked about potential running mates for Vice President Kamala Harris, is not Jewish. But Kelly, a former astronaut, has strong ties to Jews and Israel, starting with his marriage (by a rabbi) to former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, who survived a mass shooting in 2011, though her political career did not.
Kelly, 60, is attracting attention because he’s a popular first-term politician in a key swing state that former President Donald Trump won in 2016 but lost in 2020 by 10,457 votes. In a recent poll from the Democratic super PAC Blue Lab, Kelly was among four Democratic politicians— along with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — who performed the strongest in battleground states.
Punchbowl News reported Monday morning that Kelly is receiving considerable attention not only from Democratic activists but Harris herself. Jamie Gangel, a CNN special correspondent, said on the network that he is someone Harris “knows very well and likes very much.”
Kelly joined Harris on the campaign trail in Las Vegas the day after Biden’s disastrous debate on June 27, which led to his decision Sunday to end his reelection campaign and endorse Harris. A retired Navy pilot before he joined NASA, Kelly flew numerous combat missions, including during the Gulf War in the early 1990s.
Here’s more about Kelly’s Jewish connections.
What would a Mark Kelly vice presidency mean for American Jews?
Kelly, who was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2020, is deeply connected to Arizona’s Jewish community, which makes up 2% of the population. According to the Jewish Electoral Institute, 38% of Jewish adults in the state identify as Democrats, 23% support the GOP and an additional 16% identify as independents who lean toward the Democratic Party.
Kelly’s wife celebrated her bat mitzvah in 2021 at the age of 51.
He left NASA in 2011 to take care of Gabby Giffords after she was shot in the head at a political event in Arizona. The couple was married in 2007 by Rabbi Stephanie Aaron of Congregation Temple Chaverim in Tucson, Arizona.
Alma Hernandez, a Mexican-American Jewish member of Arizona’s House of Representatives, told me that she has known Kelly for more than a decade through his wife and daughter. She is also a member of the Temple Chaverim synagogue. Hernandez described Kelly as “an incredible partner to the Jewish community,” noting that his candidacy would invigorate Jewish voters if he is selected.
“Having a Jewish second lady and a Jewish first gentleman would be pretty amazing,” she remarked, referring to Doug Emhoff’s identity as the husband of Kamala Harris, should the Harris-Kelly ticket win the White House.
What would a Mark Kelly vice presidency mean for fighting antisemitism?
Kelly is a member of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism and is a co-sponsor of the bipartisan Countering Antisemitism Act, which was introduced in the Senate in April. It proposes the appointment of a new presidential adviser dedicated to antisemitism, separate from Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, who holds a cabinet-level position focused on global antisemitism.
In 2021, he decried an incident of vandalism at Congregation Temple Chaverim where his wife is a member — a rock thrown through a window. “Antisemitic attacks fly in the face of who we are as a country and as a state,” he said. “There is no place for hate in Arizona.”
In response to the campus pro-Palestinian protests, Kelly suggested deploying the U.S. National Guard would be an option to deal with violent demonstrators, though he said he did not think it would be necessary.
Kelly’s Republican rival in the race for Senate, Blake Masters, once cited a Nazi official and was backed by Andrew Torba, the CEO of the antisemitic Gab social media platform.
Paul Rockower, the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Phoenix, called Kelly “a strong friend of the Jewish community of Arizona as we have faced rising antisemitism.”
Kelly’s trips to Israel
Kelly’s connection to Israel is personal. While stationed in Houston, he served alongside Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, who was killed in the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003. His close relationship with the Ramon family continues.
He first visited Israel in 2020 with Giffords, just months before he was elected to the Senate. Larry Gellman, a close friend, campaign supporter and golf partner of Kelly, said in an interview that the trip, during which the couple also visited Hebron in the occupied West Bank, “had a big impression on him.”
Kelly has visited Israel at least twice since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. He was one of four bipartisan senators who joined Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer a week after the attack to meet with Israel’s top leadership. The purpose of that trip, Schumer said, was to assure Israelis that the U.S. stands with them. During a visit to Tel Aviv, the group was rushed to take shelter from rockets fired by Hamas.
Gellman, who serves on the board of the Forward and the board of J Street, said that in a briefing to the board of the Tucson JCC, Kelly “talked about how amazing Israel was and how horrible the attacks were, and how he’d seen the videos and the atrocities, and it was the most shocked he’d been since Gabby got shot.”
Kelly’s views on the war in Gaza
Kelly has said Israel has “every right” to defend itself and target Hamas in Gaza. But he has raised his concerns about the high number of Palestinian casualties with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during a second trip to the region in January, as well as with Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog.
Kelly said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press in May that if there’s no change in the way Israel is prosecuting the war, “it is appropriate to put conditions” on some U.S. military aid to the country.
In February, he joined 24 Democrats in calling for a temporary ceasefire. He said in May he was in close contact with the head of the World Food Program, Cindy McCain, the wife of the late Republican Sen. John McCain, of Arizona, about the “full-blown famine” in Gaza. He pledged to lobby for more humanitarian aid “and push the Israelis to do better.”
Earlier this year, Kelly co-sponsored an amendment to the foreign aid emergency package that reiterates the long-standing U.S. policy to support of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
“Unlike a lot of politicians, he acknowledges it as a very complicated situation, Gellman said. “He’s very analytical about everything.”
Jodi Rudoren, editor-in-chief of the Forward, contributed reporting.
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