by Steve Cortes
The U.S. Senate election in Arizona this year is not simply a choice between a Democrat and a Republican: It’s a choice between a dangerous, far-left radical in Mark Kelly, who does not represent the voters of his state, and Blake Masters, a patriotic America First conservative who will represent the people of Arizona in Washington.
When Mark Kelly first ran for the Senate in 2020, he labeled himself as a moderate who would continue the Arizonan tradition of “political mavericks” representing the state in the upper chamber of Congress. He largely rode into Congress by building a larger-than-life persona for himself from his time as an astronaut, and he also leaned heavily on sympathy votes as a result of the assassination attempt on his wife, former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
But with these appeals to the voters’ sympathies, Kelly’s election pretty much sent a leftist wolf in sheep’s clothing to the Senate. As senator, he has tacked firmly to the far left on all major issues, flagrantly disregarding the safety and rights of his constituents.
The facts are that since he first took office, Sen. Kelly has voted in line with Joe Biden’s agenda 94.4% of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight. He has voted in favor of abolishing the filibuster and in favor of forcing all healthcare workers to take the COVID-19 vaccine just to keep their jobs. He voted for Biden’s disastrous $1.9 trillion American Rescue plan that triggered some of the worse inflation we’ve seen in decades, voted for raising the already disastrously high national debt limit, and also voted for a resolution to create a Jan. 6 commission, which ultimately took the form of Nancy Pelosi’s hyper-partisan witch hunt committee in the House.
And those are just some of the “highlights” of Kelly’s time in the U.S. Senate.
Using his wife’s name as a political shield, Kelly has made a personal crusade out of trampling all over the Second Amendment. He has founded numerous anti-gun groups over the last decade, including a joint project with the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence that invoked his wife’s name, and another group that he co-founded with the disgraced retired Gen. David Petraeus, the Veterans Coalition for Common Sense. He voted in favor of the sweeping anti-gun legislation that became law earlier this year, the strictest gun control bill in 30 years, even though none of the bill’s provisions would have prevented the most recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, or Uvalde, Texas. It’s no wonder, then, that Kelly has been given a score of 0% by Gun Owners of America, one of the most prominent pro-Second Amendment groups in the nation.
When it comes to the existential crisis that is the ongoing open-borders disaster, Kelly has refused to take any action to stop the overflow of illegal aliens into our country. While claiming on the campaign trail to be against the idea of “sanctuary cities,” Kelly has nevertheless stated his support for the unconstitutional amnesty program DACA, and last year voted for a spending bill that provided taxpayer-funded benefits to tens of thousands of unvetted “refugees” from Afghanistan. Meanwhile, even as he refuses to support measures to increase the number of border patrol agents, Kelly turned right around and voted for the “Inflation Reduction Act,” which mandated the hiring of an additional 87,000 IRS agents who will absolutely be targeting the American middle class.
Mark Kelly’s record speaks for itself: He’s no moderate. He is every bit as partisan as leftists Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. The only interests he represents are those of the far-left Democratic establishment, with the voters of Arizona an afterthought.
With polls showing Blake Masters within striking range of Kelly five weeks out from November 8, the people of Arizona have a clear-cut choice: Vote for the status quo that has led to rising gas and grocery prices, rising crime, and an immigration and border disaster, or Blake Masters, who actually believes in putting the people of Arizona, and America, first. Let’s hope Arizonans choose wisely on Election Day.
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Steve Cortes is a former adviser to President Trump.
Photo “Mark Kelly” by Senator Mark Kelly.
