Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) predicted Sunday that former Vice President Kamala Harris could have a “strong” campaign if she decided to run for president again in 2028.

Kelly appeared on NBC News’s Meet the Press on Sunday to respond to the rumors that Harris is planning to run again. Host Kristen Welker asked the senator if he thought Harris was “a strong candidate in 2028.”

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“Absolutely, yeah. I mean, she was the nominee last time,” Kelly said.

 

Harris notably became the candidate after former President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, when every state had already voted in the Democratic primary election, but she would ultimately lose to President Donald Trump, failing to win any swing states.

“You would encourage her to run?” Welker followed up.

“I think she would be incredibly strong. I think you’re going to have a dozen if not more folks running, probably on either side,” Kelly said.

Should Harris run again, it would be her third attempt at the Oval Office. Harris is stoking speculation by conducting a book tour on her latest release about her campaign, 107 Days.

Kelly responded to an excerpt that mentioned him, as Harris considered him for a running mate. However, she wrote, “I wasn’t sure how [Kelly] would cope with the kind of garbage Trump would throw at him. I realized that I couldn’t afford to test Mark Kelly in that ugly grinder.”

 

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“Well, I’m pretty good at handling garbage. That’s never been a problem. It was an honor to be considered,” Kelly said. “We’re trying to address all kinds of problems right now, and I’m not so much focused on a book, but I do wish her success, and I hope she sells a lot of books. As somebody who has written some books, it’s hard to sell books.”

Harris also wrote in her book that she first considered former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, but thought against it because “we were already asking a lot of America” in asking for votes for a woman. Her campaign did not win over a single swing state in 2024 despite a war chest of over $1 billion.

Kelly is also stirring speculation that he will run after he hosted a town hall in Michigan, a battleground state, last month.