It would appear that we have a new name in the hunt for the Democrat nomination in 2028.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) is livid over Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth coming after him for his video telling troops to disregard direct orders.
In response, Kelly says he is seriously considering running for president.
Hegseth went after Kelly with everything he had after that video, and rightfully so.
It was nothing more than a cheap political stunt, using troops as pawns to score political points.
When Kelly was put on the spot about specific illegal orders or whether he would have defied those orders, he did the two-step around the question.
Now, after being censured by Hegseth and threatened with a recall for a possible court-martial, Kelly sued, stating, "The First Amendment forbids the government and its officials from punishing disfavored expression or retaliating against protected speech. That prohibition applies with particular force to legislators speaking on matters of public policy."
To this point, Kelly has never been mentioned as a 2028 candidate, nor has he ever expressed any interest in running, but that just changed.
He just told CNN that he is seriously considering a run, adding, “I still think it needs to be the right person for the moment, and we don’t know what that moment is yet.”
He later stated, “I feel this obligation more so than anything I’ve ever done in my life, to fight back against an unhinged president and a weaponization of the federal government against the constitutional rights of a million retired veterans.”
This is not a candidacy anyone should take lightly. While Harris and Newsom are both snakes in the grass, that is not the general impression of Kelly, and he also has the hero factor working for him. He would be formidable.
Save a few outlying polls, the 2028 race has been about Newsom and Harris for months now, with Newsom having the big surge in the most recent polls, generally holding a sizeable lead, but not one that could not be overcome.
At his best, Newsom was polling in the mid-30s, and there is still considerable undecided voters that could be won. And here is the odd thing… for no reason at all, Kelly popped on the radar in the last YouGov poll at 7%, and that is not good news for Harris or Newsom.
Now that he has expressed interest, I would expect him to take some of the undecided voters as well as take a nibble out of both Newsom and Harris.
If the Democrat Party were smart, it would encourage Kelly to announce ASAP and get momentum because moderate voters will flock to him, but the party seems set on Newsom or Harris, so he could be on his own here. If you want my opinion, and since you are reading this, I will assume you do, Kelly is easily the scariest candidate on the board in terms of being a real threat to win the White House. Take his campaign lightly as your own peril.
