Sen. Mark Kelly says he has work to do before making decision about presidential run

Feb 25, 2026, 8:26 AM

PHOENIX – U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona said Wednesday, Feb. 25, he hasn’t yet decided if he will run for president in 2028.

When asked about his potential presidential ambitions, the Democrat told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News he has plenty of other important matters he’s dealing with.

“There’s a lot of work that I’ve got to get done here, and we’ve got an election in 2026,” he said.

In January, Kelly told CNN he started thinking seriously about a presidential run after the Trump administration tried to punish him over a video in which he and five other Democratic members of Congress tell members of the U.S. military and the intelligence community they have a duty to refuse “illegal orders.”

“I feel this obligation more so than anything I’ve ever done in my life, to fight back against an unhinged president and a weaponization of the federal government against the constitutional rights of a million retired veterans,” Kelly told CNN. “I still think it needs to be the right person for the moment, and we don’t know what that moment is yet.”

On Feb. 12, a federal judge blocked the Department of Defense from censuring Kelly and demoting him from his retired rank of Navy captain over the video.

The judge said the Pentagon’s effort to discipline Kelly violated his First Amendment right to free speech. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is appealing the ruling.

Previously, federal prosecutors failed in their effort to get a grand jury to indict the six Democratic lawmakers over the video.

Sen. Mark Kelly concerned about U.S. losing friends under Trump

Before making a final decision about running for president, Kelly said Wednesday he has to deal with problems around the world that he blames on President Donald Trump.

“Our relationships with our European allies are really bad right now because of some things that this president has said he wanted to do,” he said.

Kelly, a member of the Armed Services and the Intelligence committees, cited Trump’s push for control of Greenland, an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Denmark has been a longtime U.S. ally.

“We’ve lost our friends. If you’re the prime minister of Denmark or the prime minister of Greenland, who I met with, they’re afraid of us and they’re angry. So, there’s a lot of work,” he said.