Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., gave a two-word answer to a shouted question about running for president in 2028 while campaigning Tuesday for Troy Jackson, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine.
Kelly was midway through a riff on how the economy has stopped working for young Americans, describing his own path as “the son of two cops who went to public schools and went on to become a Navy pilot and then an astronaut and now a U.S. senator,” when someone in the crowd shouted “president.”
“We’ll see,” Kelly replied. The crowd cheered.
Kelly is up for re-election to the Senate in 2028 and regularly shows up in early polling on the Democratic presidential field, though he typically trails better-known names like former Vice President Kamala Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
His national profile has grown over the past year. In November 2025 he appeared in a video with other Democratic lawmakers telling U.S. service members they have a duty to disobey illegal orders, including orders from the executive branch. That video triggered a criminal investigation into Kelly and five other lawmakers, but a federal grand jury declined to indict any of them in February.
Axios reported last week that Kelly is weighing a presidential run. He told the outlet he’ll decide whether to run for president or seek another Senate term after the midterms.
He may not have to choose. Arizona law allows presidential and vice presidential candidates to simultaneously run for one additional federal office, which means Kelly could appear on Arizona’s 2028 ballot as a candidate for both president and Senate at the same time. That provision lowers the political risk of a White House bid for him, since a loss wouldn’t necessarily cost him his Senate seat.
If he won the Democratic nomination and both races, he still could not hold both offices at once.
