Mark Kelly Goes Top Gun Tough in Audition for Harris Running Mate

Sen. Mark Kelly isn’t hiding his ambition to be wingman to Democratic presidential nominee-apparent Kamala Harris.

Not only did the Arizona senator pull a classic campaign season flip-flop on an issue dear to organized labor on Wednesday, he also posted a new video on X showcasing his Top Gun -style Navy pilot machismo.

Kelly, 60, starts out with a self-deprecating description of making a mess of his first flight in the U.S. Navy. “I’m all ready. I’ve studied. I’ve prepared. I’m in my Navy green flight suit,” he says. But then, he says, he pulled a rookie move and spilled a bunch of loose change from his pocket into the cockpit, an aviation hazard.

The phallic symbols are all there. He spilled his wad into the cockpit, the literal receptacle for a pilot. He was seated for the videotaped interview in an airplane hangar, near the wing of a small military aircraft, the tail fin rising in plain view.

“So the flight was over before it started,” he grins sheepishly, thinking back to his younger self unable to contain his excitement.

Captain Kelly comes off as sexy, and macho. He appeals as much to women as to men, who may need more seducing this election year to vote for the Democratic ticket.

For his last flight in the Navy, an experienced Kelly knew how to handle his craft, in this case, the space shuttle Endeavor. He recalls undocking from the International Space Station, flying the shuttle at “Mach 25, hitting the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean—a giant fireball all the way across the Pacific over California, over Texas, with a landing on runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center.”

“It was my last flight in the Navy,” Kelly says to an unknown and unseen interviewer (presumably hired by his political consultant). “And it was Space Shuttle Endeavor’s 25th and last flight.”

Polling will tell—if Vice President Harris chooses Kelly—how popular he is among likely male voters. He managed to win twice as a Democrat in his red border state of Arizona. But it will be a critical test for a battered national Democratic Party whose elderly and cognitively frail nominee, President Joe Biden, was forced to abandon his reelection bid after one revealing debate performance.

Even longtime progressive women’s rights champion Ilyse Hogue concedes that Harris should choose a “strong man” at a time when Democrats are viewed as hostile to male voters and their masculinity.

Kelly, meanwhile, switched his position on a major labor reform measure known as the PRO ACT after labor unions suggested he wasn’t fit to be a vice presidential contender, according to ABC News .

After initially expressing reservations about the measure, Kelly said on Wednesday that he will vote for it if it comes to the Senate floor, changing his tune after John Samuelsen, the president of the Transport Workers Union, asked ABC on Tuesday: “Why would the Democrats even consider a senator for the vice presidency if the senator doesn’t support the PRO Act?”

Kelly is proving that he is tough enough (read: politically agile) to win over a skeptical labor boss. But will he be tough enough for Democratic voters who feel emasculated by the impotency of their party?

“It’s not about how good you are when you start, it’s about how good you push yourself to be,” Kelly wrote on X above his video.

Read more at The Daily Beast.