‘Not a person who gets overly excited’: Sen. Mark Kelly auditions to be Kamala Harris’s VP

Being boring isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The Senate is full of boring people. Politicians are probably a little too eager for the limelight these days. And being bland and unoffensive is what’s helped Kelly win two successive Senate elections in a state that’s gradually turning purple. That was especially true when he faced down Blake Masters — one of the GOP’s more out-there Senate candidates — in 2022.

The conventional wisdom about Kelly is that, as a border-state senator, he might be able to shore up Democrats’ credibility on immigration and border security. He also may be a good fit to go toe-to-toe with Vance, since he handily defeated a similar candidate just two years ago. He could help Harris win Arizona’s 11 Electoral College votes. And there’s his unique biography: An ex-astronaut who’s married to former Rep. Gabby Giffords, the victim of an assassination attempt in 2011.

“Kelly would bring a lot to the table,” Sen. Tim Kaine told me. The Virginia senator, who served as Hillary Clinton’s running mate in 2016, went on to list Kelly’s assets in a matter-of-fact way. “Child of two police officers. Merchant Marine Academy grad. Navy fighter pilot. Astronaut, meaning he has tremendous national security expertise. Battleground state with a Democratic governor, so he wouldn’t give up the Senate seat. In a state that has a contested Senate race where his presence on the ticket could be helpful, and a very compelling personal story, not only in terms of his own public service background, but his intimate familiarity with the tragedy of American gun violence.”

He didn’t seem eager to stick around, and the train was approaching. Would he be going home to Arizona after all? “I’m not going to be discussing my schedule,” Kelly replied. Had he met with Harris’s vetting team? “I’m not going to talk about any of that,” he said.

“This isn’t about me,” Kelly said as the doors closed on him, repeating his stock response to the questions about his sudden vice presidential candidacy. “This is about beating Donald Trump.”