“I've got two grandkids. I worry about the future for them and for the future for this nation,” Kelly said.

Kelly’s second granddaughter was born that morning. He had taken care of his older granddaughter the night before, went to the hospital and then set off on a day of campaigning.

“I even picked the right outfit for Sage,” said Kelly, looking at a picture of his two granddaughters in matching beige outfits on his smartphone screen.

Is Kelly running for president in 2028?

Kelly is among the countless political leaders taking a look at what will be the first wide-open Democratic primary in nearly a decade. They include California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, and former Vice President Kamala Harris, who vetted Kelly as a possible running mate for her failed presidential bid in 2024.

Since that summer, Kelly’s national profile has grown. He has $25 million in the bank and has used his platform to raise $1 million for Arizona Democrats. He’s rising in early state primary polls. An August survey from Saint Anselm College found Kelly had 12% of support among New Hampshire primary voters.

He’s also growing his political network beyond Arizona. A group of young political leaders joined Kelly for the day, including Democrats from the newly anointed early presidential primary states of South Carolina and New Mexico.

“I want to see the astronaut get to the White House,” said Alexander Walker-Griffin, the vice mayor of Hercules, California, part of the young leaders group.

At his first event of the day, Kelly spoke about his service as a Navy fighter pilot, from flying his first combat mission at 25 years old to his vote for late President George H.W. Bush.

“I realized that the people we put in charge of this government need to be of a certain caliber,” Kelly told a crowd of roughly 100 people at the La Rosa events venue in Tucson.

Then he pivoted to Trump and the war in Iran.

“This president got us into this without a strategic goal, without a plan, without a timeline and without a way out. Now he's stuck,” Kelly said.

Kelly also slammed the Trump administration for deteriorating conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier that has spent more than 200 days at sea. Some sailors tried to go overboard as the deployment dragged on, according to news reports.

Trump has said the ship is “beautifully maintained,” and the deployment was “not nearly long enough.”

“This is a guy who, literally, for much of his life, has been using a gold toilet, and so of course he doesn't understand service to this country,” Kelly said.

Kelly has had his own battle with Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Trump called for Kelly to be hanged after he filmed a video reminding U.S. service members that they don’t have to follow illegal orders.

“This isn't about me. This is about 2 million retired service members that they want to shut up. And you know what? It's working on a lot of them because a lot of them have told me, come up to me personally, and said they are changing what they say and what they do because of this president,” Kelly told The Republic. “It's not going to change what I say or do.”

In the afternoon, Kelly and his wife, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona, mingled with veterans and Arizona political leaders at MotoSonora Brewing.

Giffords’ vintage BMW motorcycle was prominently on display in the Tucson taproom, which was founded by brothers Jeremy and Jeff DeConcini, members of another southern Arizona political family.

Kelly filmed videos for social media with attendees and passed a challenge coin to an influencer. There were so many of Kelly’s own cameras in the room that one attendee asked whether it was a cable news crew.

Sitting at a picnic table outside the brewery afterward, Kelly said flipping the Senate would be a way to hold the president accountable for what he sees as bad decisions and corruption. He referenced the Trump administration’s embrace of prediction markets and online betting.

“We are a country of laws. We cannot let people break the law. Nobody is above the law,” Kelly said. “I’m not advocating for any kind of, like, a witch hunt. You know, we don't want the public to think that people are unnecessarily going after this person for political reasons. But when laws are broken and people are enriching themselves to the tune of millions, hundreds of millions, or more, it needs to be looked into.”

That night, Kelly capped the day with a packed evening event at 191 Toole, where his allies wore “#FULL SPEED AHEAD” T-shirts and he demonstrated what a stump speech might sound like.

Kelly touched on getting money out of politics, frustration about how young people can’t afford to buy houses and, of course, plenty of fire aimed at Trump.

“Are you guys fed up with what's going on in our country right now?” Kelly said. “I'm very fed up.”

Later, Giffords joined him on stage and talked about the aphasia she faces 15 years after she was shot by a gunman at a political event near Tucson.

“America needs all of us to speak out, even when you have to fight to find the words,” Giffords said.

Democrats looking for 'backbone'

Democrats have been carefully watching primaries this election cycle to see where the party is headed after the country swung right in 2024.

Candidates affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America have pulled off surprising wins in some places, such as Michigan, while voters elsewhere have rejected them.

More broadly, polls show that Democrats believe the country is on the wrong track and say they are looking for candidates that they see as fighters.

That’s true for Gilbert Mendoza, a Navy veteran who lives in Rio Rico and attended Kelly’s morning event for veterans. He is not related to JoAnna Mendoza but backs her campaign.

Gilbert Mendoza said he attacks Republicans online all the time, and wishes more Democratic leaders would do the same. He's excited by Democrats who have a “backbone” and are willing to go after the GOP.

He said he would support Kelly if he runs for president and listed a few other Democratic stars that interest him.

“Honestly, I’d take anybody right now, like any Democrat. I love AOC. I love Ro Khanna,” Gilbert Mendoza said. “There's so many that are starting to step up.”

In Kelly’s view, the direction of the party depends on the person running and the state where they live. The uniting factor is opposition to Trump.

“The party is going more in the direction of hey, we have to come up with some solutions to solve some of these hard problems that people are facing,” Kelly said. “We’ve got to meet the moment and come up with some real solutions, which is different than the solutions that Donald Trump is offering.”

“I mean, his solution is you give a big tax cut to billionaires and that somehow magically helps everybody else. It somehow trickles down. It doesn't trickle down. That's a bunch of (expletive).”

Stephanie Murray covers national politics and the Trump administration for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. She co-hosts “The Gaggle,” The Republic’s weekly politics podcast. Reach her at stephanie.murray@usatodayco.com, on X and TikTok @stephanie_murr and on Instagram @stephaniemurray.news.