The first step is admitting you have a problem. Sen. Mark Kelly is there when it comes to the Democratic Party.
“We have to fix this,” the Arizona Democrat told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “I don’t put a ton of stock into polls, especially this far away from an election, but we certainly do have a problem. And it’s a messaging problem. And it’s important to get out there and talk to people about the issues that they care about.”
Kelly’s answer, he added, was to go outside his state to politic against a Republican senator elsewhere.
That was not lost on CNN host Jake Tapper, who sought to press Kelly on launching a 2028 presidential campaign with a yes or no question: “You did a town hall in Michigan, and you’re coming to us from Pennsylvania, both of them key battleground states. Yes or no, are you considering running for president in 2028?”
And Kelly picked up on carrying on the Democrats’ messaging problem by blurring the message with a nonanswer.
“That is a good question,” Kelly replied. “I know you want a yes-or-no answer. I’m trying to do – and I’m not going to give you a yes-or-no one – because I’m just trying to do this job, get the word out to the American people.
“And I’m trying to improve the polling that you talked about and just listen to voters wherever they are about, what are the problems they’re dealing with, and how do we fix them?”
Notably, Kelly’s term in Arizona ends as the 2028 presidential election decides who is next in the White House. Campaigning in Michigan and Pennsylvania does not figure to garner Arizona Senate campaign votes but potential Democrat presidential primary ones.
“OK, well, I will just observe that if, anybody asked me that, I’d say, ‘no, I’m not running for president,'” Tapper deadpanned, ending the interview.
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