Arizona Senator Mark Kelly has emerged as one of the leading candidates to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate for the Democratic ticket going into this November's presidential election.
But there is one fact that no one seems to be mentioning that might put him off accepting an invitation to be Harris’ running mate. Kelly is Catholic.
In a 2023 <a href="https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a43857044/what-ive-learned-senator-mark-kelly/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">interview</mark></a> with <em>Esquire</em>, he noted that he grew up Catholic, highlighting that he went to Sunday school somewhat inexplicably “on Wednesday”.
As previously discussed in the <em>Catholic Herald</em>, Kamala Harris is already running a campaign that is going to <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/expect-to-hear-a-whole-lot-more-championing-of-reproductive-freedom-as-kamala-harriss-campaign-shifts-into-gear/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">hammer on about protecting</mark></a> "women’s reproductive rights" – the main pillar of which is abortion. A recent <em>PBS News</em> <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/democrats-hope-harris-bluntness-on-abortion-will-lead-to-2024-wins"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">article</mark></a> highlighted that Harris has no qualms when it comes to talking bluntly about abortion – and actually using the word "abortion" that many politicians often evade actually saying – on the campaign trial. <br><br>Harris has a long supported "a radical abortion agenda" and has a track record "of using her office to push a pro-abortion agenda", <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/kamala-harris-has-a-long-history-of-supporting-a-radical-abortion-agenda/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">notes</mark></a> <em>LifeSiteNews</em>, a non-profit Internet news service dedicated to issues of life, family and related issues that was launched to "provide an alternative to the mainstream news that was either ignoring or providing highly slanted reporting" on such issues.
That could be a tough one for Kelly to square. Admittedly, in 2022 Kelly came out against the overturning of Roe v. Wade, <a href="https://www.kelly.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sen-kelly-on-the-supreme-courts-ruling-on-abortion-access/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">saying at the time</mark></a>: “Today’s decision is a giant step backward for our country. Women deserve the right to make their own decisions about abortion. It is just wrong that the next generation of women will have fewer freedoms than my grandmother did."<br><br>He was also a <a href="https://www.kelly.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/video-sen-kelly-votes-to-advance-womens-health-protection-act/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">co-sponsor</mark></a> of the Women’s Health Protection Act which if passed would write almost 50 years of precedent for abortion protections under Roe v. Wade into law. <br><br>But, at the same time, he has at times <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/democratic-sen-mark-kelly-refuses-say-abortion-limits-supports-arizona-senate-showdown"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">avoided making his position on abortion clear</mark></a>, while stating that he supports some late-term abortion restrictions.
Like any Democrat politician serving presently, especially for a Catholic, given the ideological tilt of the present-day party, any personal misgivings you might have about abortion will need to be reconciled with the party's staunchly pro-abortion position. It wasn’t a tough one for President Joe Biden to square, which has been one of the greatest disappointments of his presidency for many US Catholics.
But Kelly is cut from a very different cloth. He isn’t a career politician, having served as a US navy pilot and then as an astronaut. He was inducted into the US Astronaut Hall of Fame on 6 May 2023. He comes across as a man of principle and integrity.
Hence there is much to recommend Kelly to Harris and to the Democrats. As the <em>Guardian</em> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/23/kamala-harris-vp-pick"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">notes</mark></a>, Kelly, in addition to the amazing career of pilot and astronaut, "has the attraction of representing a border state that has been on the frontline of national concern over illegal immigration and also has a compelling personal story relating to gun crime – a key Democratic issue – as the husband of former US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was seriously wounded in a 2011 mass shooting".
For a man who is clearly a patriot and loves his country, it would surely be a great honour to have the opportunity to serve it as Vice President of the United States. But to do so under a President Kamala Harris, given her extreme position on abortion and other supposedly "progressive" issues, and all that might entail?
I wonder how much all that could put Kelly in a bind were he to be offered the chance to run as Harris' running mate to become the next US Vice President, and how much his conscience may already be wrestling with the potential conundrum.
If he were to be offered the nomination, and could overcome any potential clash of conscience, then it will mean that the vice presidential nominees for both the Democratic and Republican parties are Catholics and impressively high-achieving men, with Donald Trump having nominated JD Vance as his running mate at the recent Republican National Convention.
From a Catholic perspective, the US presidential election just keeps getting more and more interesting – especially for a non-American.
In the UK, we just had an election where the result was known beforehand, and any talk of Catholicism and related issues was entirely absent.
The US, in contrast, and as it so often does, is offering something far more dynamic and interesting, especially for Catholics, who seem to actually have "skin in the game" for once. <br><br><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/trump-warns-of-anti-religious-democrat-policies-theyre-really-after-the-catholics/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Trump warns of anti-religious Democrat policies: ‘They’re really after the Catholics’</mark></a></strong>
<em>Photo: Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) speaks at his re-election celebration at Barrio Cafe in Phoenix, Arizona, 12 November 2022. (Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images.)</em>
