Mark Kelly is Kamala’s best choice — and it’s not close

Kamala Harris’s ascension to the Democratic nomination has been rapid and energizing for a demoralized party that had, in some corners, given up hope of beating Donald Trump and J.D. Vance in November. Her path was cleared by the Democratic elite, the same party figures who put her in the vice presidency in the first place despite the Biden family’s reported opposition at the time. Now she faces her first major decision: who to choose as her running mate, a choice that those same elites will almost certainly help dictate behind the scenes.

Ever since the 2022 midterms, we’ve heard a lot from the media about Democrats’ “deep bench” of moderate governors — initially, as no one will acknowledge at this point, with the idea of replacing Kamala herself to make for a more formidable 2024 ticket. That concern will be conveniently memory-holed now that she’s at the top of a ticket that will be more transparently manifested than anything we’ve seen before — memed by the Valley, produced by Hollywood and scored by Beyoncé. 

So who will the powers that be choose for her partner in this endeavor? The process is being run by Eric Holder, and according to the Wall Street Journal’s Ken Thomas, he’s vetting a slew of viable candidates: Arizona senator Mark Kelly, North Carolina governor Roy Cooper, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker and Minnesota governor Tim Walz. Arguably all of these but Pritzker could be helpful in swing states — and the only notable absence at this stage is Kentucky’s Andy Beshear. But out of this list, there’s one name that stands above the rest as an option: Arizona’s Mark Kelly.

Understand the priorities of the Democratic Party at this point. If you want this election to be about abortion, guns and Project 2025-esque risks to “democracy,” Kelly can speak to two of those strongly. His wife Gabby Giffords’s attempted assassination gives him the ability to personally speak to that thorny issue, and he can cite the chaos in Arizona in the post-election aftermath of Kari Lake’s run as his own brush with election denial. And if you think this J.D. Vance fellow is a smart guy with military experience, well, now he can debate a combat pilot who’s also a literal astronaut.

Much of this moment is about giving independent Americans who dislike both Biden and Trump a permission structure to reconsider the post-Biden Democratic ticket. Naming someone like Kelly feels like a return to normalcy even if it isn’t — a politician who reads as centrist despite wanting to get rid of the filibuster and voting with the Biden agenda 95 percent of the time. And for the Hollywood production side, just think what you can do with his story on the ticket.

There’s no question at this stage that you’d still rather be the Trump team than trying to make this new Democratic ticket work in the shadow of Biden’s ignominious exit. But for all her foibles, Harris knows how to read a script and a teleprompter, hit her marks and know her lines better than this final version of Biden ever could. Democrats will take advantage of that to depict her as a generational talent. She is a vehicle for them now, and they don’t want to go off-road. Picking someone like Kelly is entirely consistent with that aim.