Sen. Mark Kelly's political rise was years in the making. Here's what to know

PHOENIX - If Sen. Mark Kelly is named to the Democrats’ presidential ticket, it will complete what looks like a rapid rise through the political stratosphere: four years in the Senate and into the race for the White House.

But that overlooks the years that Kelly, D-Ariz., spent building a national profile parallel to politics and public policy.

Kelly’s name was loudly kicked around to replace his wife, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., after she left Congress in 2012 because of her gunshot injuries the year before. He rejected the idea, saying Giffords’ recovery required his attention.

Kelly is believed to be among the finalists for Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate , along with others, including Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Researchers scrutinizing his life and career will discover Kelly's background in politics goes back further than his four years in the Senate.

Some Democrats hoped he would challenge Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in 2016, though Kelly ruled it out and publicly stated his admiration for a fellow Navy combat pilot.

Kelly was a national figure on gun-control issues. And he faced reporters nationally for his involvement in four space shuttle missions over a 10-year span beginning in 2001.

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said Kelly “offers a lot” as a senator from a swing state, and Kelly’s earlier life experience could help him with voters.

“He was an astronaut,” Sabato said. “He’s a familiar figure to the tens of millions who pay attention to space travel.”

As for experience, Kelly’s four years in politics “takes it off the table,” Sabato said.

“We live in a different era. First, Harris has plenty of experience,” he said. “Second, Donald Trump started with zero experience, started with no public service. So how are they going to take after (Kelly) on that? And JD Vance has been in the Senate for 18 months. Kelly has had two elections — in Arizona. That’s not an easy state for a Democrat to win.”

Kelly spent about a decade in the Navy and was a combat pilot in Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

He drew momentary interest in 1996 when he and his identical twin brother, Scott, were both selected for NASA’s space shuttle program. They would both later be part of a study of the effects of space on humans.

He appeared in NASA news conferences still available on C-SPAN’s archives dating to 2006.

During his NASA career, he was part of a trade mission to China involving “young leaders” for the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. That’s where he met Giffords, who was then a member of the Arizona Legislature.

In 2006, Giffords won her seat in Congress. Kelly joined her on the campaign trail.

“He was involved. They talked a lot then, and they still do, about her political life,” said former U.S. Rep. Ron Barber, D-Ariz. Barber was a Giffords staffer who was wounded alongside her in the 2011 mass shooting near Tucson. He eventually won the House seat that she vacated after the shooting.

“He was a great sounding board for her,” Barber said. “She told me she could count on him to give her straight answers, and he did.”

Their 2007 wedding was a story in the New York Times. Among the attendees was Robert Reich, the Labor secretary under President Bill Clinton.

According to the Times’ account, Giffords had been in Iraq only days before the wedding and their honeymoon would be delayed because Kelly was in training for a shuttle flight only months away.

The 2011 shooting in Tucson effectively ended Giffords’ career in elected office, but it also thrust Kelly more forthrightly into the public spotlight.

In January 2012, just over a year after the shooting, Kelly and Giffords attended President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech. She was about to resign from Congress; Kelly sat between first lady Michelle Obama and second lady Jill Biden.

He and Giffords were at the State of the Union the next year as well, as guests of McCain and and Barber.

At one point, Obama looked to the couple and said, “Gabby Giffords deserves a vote.” It was a comment that happened as gun-control legislation was pending in Congress, but also was interpreted by some as an invitation for Kelly to take her place in politics.

Jeff Rogers, a family friend and former chair of the Pima County Democrats, told ABC News at the time that Kelly would be “an ideal candidate to take on John McCain’s position in 2016.”

Kelly demurred on politics at the time, as he had for years. Months after the shooting, he memorably said, “She’s the politician in the family, I’m the space guy.”

But he was getting involved in public policy.

After the December 2012 massacre at an elementary school in Sandy Hook, Conn., Giffords and Kelly joined the effort to reform gun laws in America. They created Americans for Responsible Solutions, which is now known simply as Giffords.

“I don’t think there were any political considerations about it at all,” Barber said of the organization’s founding. “The country needed to be awakened to the dangers” of gun violence.

A month after the Sandy Hook slayings, Kelly testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing that also featured the CEO of the National Rifle Association.

“We aren’t here as victims. We speak to you today as Americans,” Kelly said. “After 20 kids and six of their teachers were gunned down in their classrooms at Sandy Hook Elementary, we said this time must be different. Something needs to be done. We are simply two reasonable Americans who have said, ‘Enough.’”

In 2014, Kelly and Giffords penned a book by that title — “Enough: Our Fight to Keep America Safe from Gun Violence.”

He took his message on curbing gun violence around the country, testifying in states such as Colorado and Oregon. In 2015, he and Giffords delivered the commencement address at her alma mater, Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.Y.

Before running for the Senate, he was a highly sought and well-paid public speaker across America and even gave some speeches abroad.

Barber said Kelly changed his mind on politics in that period.

“I think in large part he was motivated to do that because he really felt that there needed to be some people in the Senate who stood up for the right things,” he said. “He felt he needed to step up.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sen. Mark Kelly's political rise was years in the making. Here's what to know