(CNN) Former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly's "next mission" is to be a US senator for Arizona.

"I care about people. I care about the state of Arizona. I care about this nation. So because of that, I've decided that I'm launching a campaign for the United States Senate," Kelly said in a video released Tuesday announcing his run as a Democratic candidate.

Kelly, 54, is the husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Arizona, who survived a shooting in 2011. The two appeared together in Kelly's announcement video, recounting that difficult period in their lives and Giffords' rehabilitation from the gunshot wound.

"I learned a lot from being an astronaut. I learned a lot from being a pilot in the Navy. I learned a lot about solving problems from being an engineer," Kelly says in the campaign announcement video. "But what I learned from my wife is how you use policy to improve people's lives."

Since retiring from NASA, Kelly has been an advocate for gun control. Both he and his wife formed the organization now called Giffords in 2013 in order to combat gun violence after the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Read More</s>Mark Kelly, the retired astronaut and husband of former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, announced in a video Tuesday he is launching a campaign to run for the U.S. Senate seat once occupied by the late John McCain.

Kelly is the first Democrat to enter the field ahead of 2020 and is widely seen as a formidable candidate given his biography and likely ability to raise the millions of dollars needed to take on the GOP's established candidate, Sen. Martha McSally.

McSally was appointed to the seat by Gov. Doug Ducey late last year and it is unclear if she will face a competitive primary challenger as she did in 2018. McSally lost her run for the office to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema.

Kelly announced his run during a four-minute video featuring cinematic views of the desert and intimate video of him with his wife, who survived an assassination attempt at a 2011 constituent event near Tucson. Six people died and 12 others were injured.

In the video, Kelly recounts his flights to space, his childhood, and his service in the U.S. Navy as combat pilot and engineer. He recalls seeing his wife for the first time after the shooting, and helping advocate for her in the years that followed. He learned from her how policy can be used to improve people's lives.

MORE: 7 years after the shooting, Mark Kelly is still working on what comes next

"Arizonans are facing incredibly challenging issues here in the years to come: access to affordable health care, the stagnation of wages, job growth, the economy, as the climate warms we're going to have more drought here in the desert," Kelly says.

"Solving some of the hardest problems requires one thing, and that's teamwork. ... Partisanship and polarization and gerrymandering and corporate money have ruined our politics and it's divided us. I care about people. I care about the state of Arizona. I care about this nation. So because of that, I've decided that I'm a campaign for the United States Senate.

More: NASA astronaut Mike Fincke to replace Eric Boe to Boeing's Starliner Crew

"We've seen this retreat from science and data and facts, and if we don't take these issues seriously, we can't solve these problems."

The video ends with Kelly and Giffords sitting on a couch, "Damn the torpedoes," he says.

"Full speed ahead," they say together.

Kelly likely will focus much of his energy during the next several months on generating substantial money for his campaign.

His announcement comes a few days after former attorney general Grant Woods, a Republican-turned-Democrat, announced he would not be getting in the race. Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego is also considering a run for the seat.

The winner of the 2020 special election would have to run again in 2022 for the full six-year term.

Kelly grew up in Orange, N.J., as the son of two police officers.

He received a degree in marine engineering and nautical science from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, graduating with highest honors in 1986, according to his biography with NASA. He also has a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering.

During his military career, Kelly picked up awards ranging from the Distinguished Flying Cross to the NASA Exceptional Service Medal. He flew 39 combat missions in Operation Desert Storm and logged more than 5,000 hours in 50 different aircraft, NASA reported.

Kelly announced his retirement from NASA in June 2011, five months after Giffords was shot. He co-founded the gun-control organization Americans For Responsible Solutions, a gun-control organization.

RELATED Group says McSally most vulnerable senator up for election in 2020</s>Former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly’s “next mission” is to be a US senator for Arizona.

“I care about people. I care about the state of Arizona. I care about this nation. So because of that, I’ve decided that I’m launching a campaign for the United States Senate,” Kelly said in a video released Tuesday announcing his run as a Democratic candidate.

Kelly, 54, is the husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Arizona, who survived a shooting in 2011. The two appeared together in Kelly’s announcement video, recounting that difficult period in their lives and Giffords’ rehabilitation from the gunshot wound.

“I learned a lot from being an astronaut. I learned a lot from being a pilot in the Navy. I learned a lot about solving problems from being an engineer,” Kelly says in the campaign announcement video. “But what I learned from my wife is how you use policy to improve people’s lives.”

Since retiring from NASA, Kelly has been an advocate for gun control. Both he and his wife formed the organization now called Giffords in 2013 in order to combat gun violence after the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

In his campaign announcement, Kelly highlights climate change, affordable health care, the stagnation of wages, job growth and the economy as the issues Arizonians will face.

“We’ve seen this retreat from science and data and facts,” he says.

In an email to supporters, Kelly said he plans to reject corporate PAC money.

“Our fight to improve our gun laws and my commitment to tackling climate change and ending the outrageous influence corporate money has on our politics means there are a lot of powerful interests who want to stop us,” he wrote.

Kelly flew his first mission into space in 2001. He completed three more missions, spent more than 50 days in space and lived on the International Space Station before retiring from NASA in 2011. He has an identical twin brother, Scott Kelly, who is also a retired NASA astronaut who spent an unprecedented year on the ISS.

As a Navy combat pilot, Kelly was deployed during the Gulf War and flew 39 combat missions, according to his campaign page.

Kelly jumps into what is sure to be a competitive race vying for the late Republican Sen. John McCain’s seat. McCain won re-election in 2016, but died in August from brain cancer. Former Arizona Rep. Martha McSally was appointed to fill the seat until the 2020 special election. The seat will be on the ballot for a full six-year term in 2022.

Arizona Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, an Iraq War veteran, is also weighing a bid for the Senate seat. “I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m looking seriously at running for the U.S. Senate in 2020, and that hasn’t changed,” Gallego posted on Twitter shortly after Kelly announced his campaign. “I’ll be making a final decision and announcement soon.”</s>Phoenix, Feb 12 (EFE).- Retired astronaut Mark Kelly, a Democrat, on Tuesday announced that he will run for the Senate seat formerly held by the late John McCain, a Republican.

Kelly, the husband of former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, made the announcement on a campaign video posted on his Twitter account.

 The former NASA astronaut is one of the main Democratic figures to challenge Republican Sen. Martha McSally, who was appointed to the post by the state governor late last year.

It is expected that the Arizona Senate race will be one of the most heavily contested of the 2020 elections.

Kelly, 54, in his video says that during his campaign he will fight for “affordable health care,” job growth, improving the economy and battling climate change, all of which he says are major issues that residents of Arizona will face in the coming years.

“My next mission? #FullSpeedAhead #ForArizona,” Kelly tweeted when he posted the campaign video, which is over four minutes long.

“I care about people. I care about the state of Arizona. I care about this nation,” Kelly said. “So because of that, I’ve decided I’m launching a campaign for the United States Senate.”

In the video, Kelly provides a detailed account of his experience as a former Navy pilot, an astronaut and being the husband of Giffords, who was severely wounded when she was shot in the head in a 2011 assassination attempt at a Tucson meet-and-greet event at which six people died.

“The thing I have to do for my wife is to be able to think clearly and make good decisions. You gotta move ahead and try to make a difference in the world,” Kelly said. “What I learned from my wife is how you use policy to improve people’s lives.”

“Solving some of the hardest problems requires one thing – and that’s teamwork,” he said. “Partisanship and polarization and gerrymandering and corporate money have ruined our politics and it’s divided us.”

“We’ve seen this retreat from science and data and facts and if we don’t take these issues seriously, we can’t solve these problems,” Kelly added.

 Giffords, too, appears with her husband in the video, at the end of which the pair say together: “Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead.”

Kelly, who flew 39 combat missions during Operation Desert Storm, has never held elective office, but – like his wife – he has become a prominent advocate for gun control.

Gov. Doug Ducey named McSally to occupy McCain’s Senate seat after his first nominee, former Sen. Jon Kyl, resigned after just a few months in the post.

The 2020 election will decide who will serve out the last two years of McCain’s term and the winner will presumably run again for a regular six-year term in 2022.

Phoenix Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego is also considering a run for the Senate seat.

Former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods, a Republican all his life who then became a Democrat and has been a ferocious critic of President Donald Trump, last week announced that he would not run in the election.

Kelly received a degree in marine engineering and nautical science from the US Merchant Marine Academy, graduating with highest honors in 1986, according to his NASA biography, and he also has a Master’s degree in aeronautical engineering.

He was selected to train to become a NASA space shuttle pilot in 1996 and first went into space in 2001 as pilot of STS-108. He piloted another shuttle mission in 2006 and commanded two additional missions in 2008 and 2011, after which he retired from NASA.

While in the military, Kelly was presented with the Distinguished Flying Cross, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and assorted other awards.</s>PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5/AP) -- Mark Kelly, retired astronaut and husband of former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, announced Tuesday his intent to run for 2020 U.S. Senate in Arizona.

Kelly said his next mission is for Arizona in an announcement video posted to his website and social media.

The 54-year-old served in the U.S. Navy as a combat pilot and engineer.

He will compete in the Democratic primary and if successful, face off against Republican Martha McSally in a 2020 special election.

McSally is finishing out the term of late Sen. John McCain who died following a year-long battle with glioblastoma. She was appointed to the seat late last year by Gov. Doug Ducey after losing to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema.

The winner of the 2020 race would face re-election in 2022 for a full six-year term.

Kelly described himself as an independent-minded centrist who will take a scientist's data-driven approach to solving problems such as climate change, wage stagnation and health care affordability.

"You see a lot of partisanship in Washington and a lot of polarization, and to some extent we've created that," Kelly told The Associated Press. "It's going to take people who are more independent to fix it. Arizonans value independence."

Kelly decried politicians who "ignore data and facts and in some cases don't even believe in science," but did not take on Trump directly, saying he's "not going to focus on the presidency or the White House."

Kelly is a firm believer in gun control legislation, co-founding the gun-control organization Americans for Responsible Solutions with Giffords in 2013. Kelly and Giffords have pushed Congress to enact gun control measures with little success. They shifted their focus to state legislatures in recent years, helping to strengthen background checks and domestic violence protections, among other modest protections.

Giffords was severely wounded in a mass shooting on Jan. 8, 2011. The shooting at a Giffords meet-and-greet event outside a grocery store in Tucson left six dead and 13 injured. Shooter Jared Loughner was sentenced to life in prison.

Giffords played a prominent role in the four-minute video Tuesday launching Kelly's campaign.

"I thought then that I had the risky job," Kelly says to Giffords. "Turned out, you were the one that had the risky job."

Kelly told the AP Giffords, who has been a rising Democratic star before the shooting, will join him frequently during campaign appearances.

Arizona has been a longstanding Republican stronghold, but a growing Latino population and frustration among women with Trump have helped Democrats make inroads.

U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego of Phoenix is also considering a Senate run, which would likely set up a tough fight for the Democratic nomination.

"I've made no secret of the fact that I'm looking seriously at running for the U.S. Senate in 2020, and that hasn't changed," Gallego said on Twitter following Kelly's announcement. "I'll be making a final decision and announcement soon."

Former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods, a lifelong Republican who became a Democrat and a fierce critic of Trump, announced last week that he won’t run, saying he didn’t want to fight in a contested Democratic primary.

Democrats are eagerly watching the Arizona contest, having already defeated McSally. The party is also gauging whether Arizona could be competitive at the presidential level in 2020 after Trump won by 4 percentage points in 2016.

Kelly has never held elected office. He flew combat missions during the first Gulf War and was a Navy test pilot before becoming an astronaut along with his twin brother, Scott Kelly. He flew four space missions over 10 years and commanded the Space Shuttle Endeavor in 2011.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.</s>Before Mark Kelly was a Democratic-party US Senate candidate for Arizona, he was a high-flying NASA astronaut with some literally out-of-this-world space credentials.

Kelly announced his campaign for Congress on Tuesday with a video that references his spaceflight experience.

"Seeing that sunrise from space for the very first time, it is incredible," Kelly said. "You know, it's pretty obvious pretty early when you get into space that we're all kind of in this together."

Kelly, 54, is running for the seat formerly occupied by Sen. John McCain. Martha McSally, a Republican former Arizona representative, is currently filling the Senate seat by appointment following McCain's death in 2018. The seat will be up for a special election in 2020.

Kelly, who was originally a Navy pilot, spent 54 days in space serving on four NASA space shuttle missions to the International Space Station. As pilot and later commander, Kelly helped deliver equipment, supplies and crew members to the ISS.

Those shuttle flights were notable for carrying the pressurized module for the Japanese Kibo laboratory to the station in 2008 and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle physics detector up in 2011.

Kelly is the husband of former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who survived a shooting in Arizona in 2011 that left six others dead. Both Giffords and Kelly have advocated for stricter gun control in the US. Kelly retired from NASA later that year to focus on his wife's recovery.

Kelly and his twin brother Scott are both retired NASA astronauts. They participated in a NASA twins study involving comparing Scott during a year in space on the ISS with Mark, who stayed down on Earth.

Mark Kelly can look to a notable precedent in astronaut-politicians: John Glenn. Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962. He won an Ohio Senate seat in 1974 and served until 1999.</s>Retired astronaut Mark Kelly announced Tuesday that he is running to finish the late Sen. John McCain's last term representing Arizona, which ends in 2022.

Kelly is the husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who survived being shot in the head in a 2011 mass shooting that left six dead in Tucson, Arizona. Since that attack, Giffords and Kelly have been prominent advocates for gun control.

He is the first Democrat to enter the field ahead of 2020 and is widely seen as a formidable candidate, given his biography and likely ability to raise the millions of dollars needed to take on the GOP's established candidate, Sen. Martha McSally.

McSally, who formerly served in the House, was appointed to the seat by Gov. Doug Ducey after she narrowly lost her campaign for Arizona's other Senate seat to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema in the 2018 midterm election. She is considered one of the most vulnerable Republican senators heading into the 2020 election.

Profile: Seven years after shooting that changed everything, Kelly still working on what comes next

McSally is a former Air Force pilot and was the first woman to fly combat missions. Kelly was a pilot in the Navy.

Both veterans will fight to fill the seat of a legendary Navy pilot who was shot down and held as a prisoner of war by North Vietnamese communists for five and a half years.

Kelly's announcement comes a few days after former attorney general Grant Woods – a Republican who joined the Democratic Party and is a fierce critic of President Donald Trump – announced he would not be getting in the race. Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego is also considering a run for the seat.

Kelly announced his candidacy in a video he shared on social media that largely focused on his biography and his marriage to Giffords.

"You know, I thought then that I had the risky job," the former astronaut tells his wife as they discuss her shooting. "Turned out that you were the one who had the risky job."

He credited his wife for giving him the drive to run for the Senate.

"I learned a lot from being an astronaut. I learned a lot from being a pilot in the Navy. I learned a lot about solving problems from being an engineer. But what I learned from my wife is how you use policy to improve people's lives," he said.

"I care about people. I care about the state of Arizona. I care about this nation," he said. "So, because of that, I've decided that I'm launching a campaign for the United States Senate."

The video ends with Kelly and Giffords sitting on a couch, "Damn the torpedoes," he says.

"Full speed ahead," they say together.

He received a degree in marine engineering and nautical science from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, graduating with highest honors in 1986, according to his biography with NASA. He also has a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering.

During his military career, Kelly picked up awards ranging from the Distinguished Flying Cross to the NASA Exceptional Service Medal. He flew 39 combat missions in Operation Desert Storm and logged more than 5,000 hours in 50 different aircraft, NASA reported.

Kelly announced his retirement from NASA in June 2011, five months after Giffords was shot. He co-founded Americans For Responsible Solutions, a gun-control organization.</s>Retired astronaut Mark Kelly says he's running to finish John McCain's term in the U.S. Senate.

Kelly made the announcement in a video message on Twitter. He's married to Gabrielle Giffords, the former Democratic Congress member from Arizona who survived being shot in the head during a constituent event in 2011.

Kelly is a top Democratic recruit to challenge Republican Sen. Martha McSally, who was appointed to the seat late last year. It's widely expected to be one of the most closely contested Senate races of the 2020 election.

But first he'll have to secure the party's nomination. Ruben Gallego, Democratic Congress member from Phoenix, is also considering a Senate run.

The 2020 election will decide who finishes the last two years of McCain's term. The winner would have to run again for a full six-year term in 2022.

In the campaign ad, Kelly identifies affordable health care, wage and job growth, and climate change as among the "incredibly challenging issues" facing Arizonans in the year head.

"We've seen this retreat from science and data and facts, and if we don't take these issues seriously, we can't solve these problems," he says.

Kelly, who turns 55 later this month, has never held elected office, but became a visible advocate for gun control after his wife was shot. The gunman was sentenced to life in prison after killing six people in the incident.

McSally was appointed by the state's governor to the McCain seat after she lost a midterm election to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema for the seat opened by the retirement of Jeff Flake.

McCain, who died last August, took over the seat in 1987 after serving as a congressman for six years, succeeding the legendary senator and former presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, who had retired.

There have been a handful of astronauts who subsequently served in Congress, led by John Glenn, who represented Ohio as a senator for a quarter-century and once ran for president.

Retired astronauts have also made their mark in Canadian politics. Liberal cabinet minister Marc Garneau and current Gov. Gen. Julie Payette had both been on space flights with NASA.

Kelly participated in four space shuttle missions, and before that, had served in the navy as a pilot, including in the Gulf War in 1990-91.

His identical twin brother Scott was also a NASA astronaut.</s>Mark Kelly, the retired astronaut and husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, launched his campaign to run for the U.S. Senate seat once occupied by the late John McCain.

Kelly is the first Democrat to enter the field ahead of 2020 and is widely seen as a formidable candidate given his biography and likely ability to raise the millions of dollars needed to take on the GOP's incumbent candidate, Sen. Martha McSally.

McSally was appointed to the seat by Gov. Doug Ducey late last year and it is unclear if she will face a competitive primary challenger as she did in 2018. McSally lost her run for the Senate last year to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema and, although she is seen as vulnerable by more liberal groups, this time she will be running as a sitting senator.

During a phone interview from his home in Tucson, Kelly offered a glimpse of the type of campaign he hopes to run. Like Sinema did in 2018, Kelly is casting himself as an almost apolitical figure who can work in a cooperative spirit, even in today's hyper-partisan environment.

Kelly, 54, intends to focus on the pocketbook issues that resonate with everyday Arizonans, from health care to jobs and climate change.

"I come at this not as a partisan," Kelly told The Arizona Republic, "but as a patriot and somebody who really cares deeply about our country and the direction it's been over the last several years. And I think of myself and I think Arizonans like the people they elect to be someone independent.

"And I feel that way, that I'm not going to look at these issues through a partisan lens, but as somebody that cares about the people here in Arizona and people in the country, and look at these things based on data and science and facts and with a sense of independence."

MORE: The Onion weighs in on Mark Kelly's U.S. Senate campaign

Kelly said he will also be talking about gun control, the issue that he and his wife have spent years advocating for, particularly after the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

"I care deeply about that issue and it will be a part of this campaign," Kelly said, adding that policymakers can protect the rights of gun owners while keeping communities and families safe from gun violence.

Asked how he would work with President Donald Trump's administration, Kelly said: "I'm going to be focused on Arizona and not what is going on in the White House."

Kelly announced his run during a four-minute video featuring cinematic views of the desert and intimate video of him with his wife, who survived an assassination attempt at a 2011 constituent event near Tucson. Six people died and 12 others were injured.

In the video, Kelly recounts his flights to space, his childhood, and his service in the U.S. Navy as combat pilot and engineer. He recalls seeing his wife for the first time after the shooting, and helping advocate for her in the years that followed. He learned from her how policy can be used to improve people's lives.

"Arizonans are facing incredibly challenging issues here in the years to come: access to affordable health care, the stagnation of wages, job growth, the economy, as the climate warms we're going to have more drought here in the desert," Kelly says.

"Solving some of the hardest problems requires one thing, and that's teamwork. … Partisanship and polarization and gerrymandering and corporate money have ruined our politics and it's divided us. I care about people. I care about the state of Arizona. I care about this nation. So because of that, I've decided that I'm launching a campaign for the United States Senate.

MORE: 7 years after the shooting, Mark Kelly is still working on what comes next

"We've seen this retreat from science and data and facts, and if we don't take these issues seriously, we can't solve these problems."

The video ends with Kelly and Giffords sitting on a couch, "Damn the torpedoes," he says.

"Full speed ahead," they say together.

Kelly likely will focus much of his energy during the next several months on generating substantial money for his campaign and meeting with voters.

Kelly doesn't know Sinema well, but said they met recently.

"I really respect her a lot," he said. "I had a meeting with her the other day and she gave me some great advice. ... She told me to work hard."

Kelly could replicate Sinema's path to victory in 2020 by winning over the same type of moderate Republican voters and independent voters who were not swayed by McSally's message.

RELATED: Group says McSally most vulnerable senator up for election in 2020

In 2018, McSally leaned in on her relationship with Trump, even after winning the primary election. The strategy was a misfire.

“I think Republicans are worried about almost every match-up,” said Jennifer Duffy, who analyzes U.S. Senate races for the influential, nonpartisan Cook Political Report in Washington, D.C. “They lost a Senate seat in a non-presidential year in Arizona. And to put it in perspective: If Democrats really want to make a play for the majority, they have to win Arizona.”

Asked how he would fare in a match-up against McSally — the nation's first female combat fighter pilot — the retired astronaut said his focus will be on telling his story to voters.

"I don't look at this as taking on anybody," he said. "I'm going to travel around the state, I'm going to listen to what they care about … Why I'm the best person to represent them in the United States Senate. I come at this from a different set of experiences, even than Senator McSally. I had to do really complicated things and orbit this planet with international partners. It was critical that we figure out a way to collaborate with people that, in the case of the Russians, were our adversaries.

"It's a hard thing to do. I don't see that from this United States Senate."

Kelly's announcement comes a few days after former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods, a Republican turned Democrat, announced he would not be getting in the race. Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego is also considering a run for the seat. He said in a Twitter post Tuesday that he is seriously weighing a bid for the seat.

"I'll be making a final decision and announcement soon," Gallego, of Phoenix, tweeted.

The winner of the 2020 special election would have to run again in 2022 for the full six-year term.

McSally did not weigh in Tuesday about Kelly's announcement. But the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee pressed Kelly to say where he stands on more liberal positions, such as the Green New Deal.

Introduced last week by Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass. and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., the deal outlines principles of a plan to both fight inequality and climate change. Kelly said Tuesday he had not read the entire proposal.

"I really care about the planet," he said, noting he saw from space how dramatically the planet changed from the time he first flew to space in 2001 and then returned a decade later.

"When a guy in space can look down over a decade and can see a planet that is now going through this phase of massive deforestation, with that carbon that was sequestered now being released into the atmosphere and the consequences of that, it's pretty frightening," he said.

Renae Eze, an Arizona spokeswoman for the RNC, said Kelly's "flashy digital ad left a lot to be desired — like where he stands on issues important to Arizonans, which won't do him any favors in the tough Democratic primary he's facing. Martha McSally has been clear where she stands since before day one."

So far, no other Democrats have announced their candidacies for the Senate.

Kelly grew up in New Jersey as the son of two police officers.

He received a degree in marine engineering and nautical science from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, graduating with highest honors in 1986, according to his biography with NASA. He also has a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering.

During his military career, Kelly picked up awards ranging from the Distinguished Flying Cross to the NASA Exceptional Service Medal. He flew 39 combat missions in Operation Desert Storm and logged more than 5,000 hours in 50 different aircraft, NASA reported.

Kelly announced his retirement from NASA in June 2011, five months after Giffords was shot. He co-founded Americans For Responsible Solutions, a gun-control organization, which has since been renamed as Giffords.</s>PHOENIX (AP) - Retired astronaut Mark Kelly, who became a prominent gun-control advocate after his wife, former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, was shot in a failed assassination attempt, announced Tuesday he will run to finish John McCain's last term in the U.S. Senate.

Kelly, 54, is a top Democratic recruit to take on Republican Martha McSally in one of the most closely contested Senate races of the 2020 election.

McSally is a former Republican congresswoman who was appointed to McCain's seat last year after she narrowly lost to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema. McSally leaned heavily on her record as the first woman to fly a combat mission as a fighter pilot, but she was hurt by her embrace of President Donald Trump.

If Kelly is nominated, the race would pit a Navy veteran and astronaut against a trailblazing Air Force pilot in the contest to replace McCain, a legendary Navy flyer who was famously shot down and held captive.

The 2020 election will decide who finishes the last two years of McCain's term. The winner would have to run again for a full six-year term in 2022.

Democrats are eagerly watching the Arizona contest, having already defeated McSally in a Senate race just a few months ago. The party is also gauging whether Arizona could be competitive at the presidential level in 2020.

Kelly has never held elected office. A retired Navy captain, he flew combat missions from an aircraft carrier during the first Gulf War before becoming an astronaut along with his twin brother, Scott Kelly. He flew four space missions between 2001 and 2011.

Kelly and Giffords have for years pushed Congress to enact gun control measures with little success. They shifted their focus to state legislatures in recent years, helping to strengthen background checks and domestic violence protections, among other modest protections.

Giffords was severely wounded in a mass shooting on Jan. 8, 2011. The shooting at a Giffords meet-and-greet event outside a grocery store in Tucson left six dead and 13 injured. Shooter Jared Loughner was sentenced to life in prison.

Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, appointed McSally to the vacant Senate seat after his first appointee, former Sen. Jon Kyl, resigned after only a few months in office.

The seat is a top target for Democrats because McSally just lost a Senate race in November and Democrats posted a strong showing in the November election, winning three statewide contests and picking up legislative and congressional seats. Arizona has been a longstanding Republican stronghold, but a growing Latino population and frustration among women with Trump have helped Democrats make inroads.

U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego of Phoenix is also considering a Senate run, which would likely set up a tough fight for the Democratic nomination.

Former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods, a lifelong Republican who became a Democrat and a fierce critic of Trump, announced last week that he will not run, saying he did not want to fight in a contested Democratic primary.

McCain, a legendary and beloved Arizona politician, died last year from an aggressive form of brain cancer after more than three decades in the Senate.
Retired NASA astronaut Mark Kelly announces that he will run for the 2020 United States Senate special election in Arizona.