WASHINGTON--Retired U.S. astronaut Mark Kelly, married to former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was wounded in a 2011 mass shooting, said on Tuesday he was challenging Republican Martha McSally for John McCain's former U.S. Senate seat.
Giffords stepped down from Congress after sustaining a serious head injury in the attack but has emerged as one of the leading voices of the U.S. gun-control movement. In a 4-1/2 minute video, Kelly sits on a sofa next to Giffords discussing his mother's history as a police officer as well as the attack on his wife.
"I thought that I had the risky job. It turned out that you were the one who had the risky job," said Kelly, a former U.S. Navy combat pilot and space shuttle commander.
McSally, a former U.S. Air Force combat pilot, was appointed last year to the seat held by the late McCain. A special election will be held in 2020 to determine who will serve the last two years of the term.
McSally narrowly lost a campaign for the state's other Senate seat to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema in November. Sinema won the seat formerly held by Republican Jeff Flake, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump who did not seek re-election.
Kelly said problems he wanted to take on include climate change, the rising cost of healthcare and increasing economic inequality.
