Senator-elect Mark Kelly shares his plans as he steps into office

Cindy McCain did not endorse either candidate in Arizona’s U.S. Senate Race, but her non-support of Martha McSally certainly didn’t hurt Democrat Mark Kelly, who won the race and is set to be sworn in as Arizona’s next United States Senator in early December.

We spoke with Senator-elect Mark Kelly on his win.

He started by sharing about his transitional team, which is made up of both Democrats and Republicans from varying careers. This team helps him analyze what committees are important for Kelly to serve on for the state of Arizona and how his background could help in those areas.

Kelly puts in a request for the committees he is interested in. He then waits on a response from the United States Senate and is assigned positions in the new year.

Although he did not directly reveal the committees he is interested in, he brought up how the late Arizona Senator John McCain served on the armed services committee. He also mentioned that he is a 25-year veteran of the United States Navy.

“It would be a pretty good fit, it would make sense,” Kelly said.

The committee is not the only area where Kelly is following in McCain’s footsteps. He mentioned that he plans to use McCain’s old desk that has been passed down to all the subsequent Arizona Senators.

Kelly asserted that he believes several Arizonans are displeased with where the country is going. Kelly thinks the hard work of his campaign team helped him secure his spot as Senator.

“To change things, you often need different leadership,” Kelly said. “I think the voters understood that.”

Kelly also shared that he is not confident about the trajectory of the Coronavirus outbreak. He said that he wants to enforce a statewide mask mandate in order to keep people safe.

“If we don’t do that, December is going to be a challenging month, Kelly said.

As for small businesses and people with jobs on the edge, he believes a mask mandate, if followed effectively, will prevent a shutdown that could be costly to many Americans.