Mark Kelly earned $1.8M for speeches

Democratic Arizona Senate candidate Mark Kelly was paid nearly $1.8 million for speeches in the past 18 months, Politico reported, citing financial disclosure forms filed Tuesday.

The form indicates Kelly, a Navy veteran and former astronaut, would be one of the wealthiest members of Congress if elected, with assets of between $10 million and $27 million, according to the news outlet.

{mosads}Kelly gave 62 paid speeches from 2018 through the first six months of 2019 to institutions including universities, trade associations and an insurance firm, Politico noted, with the most recent  on June 4 to the Electric Utility Fleet Managers Conference in Virginia.

The Arizona Democrat reportedly brought in the biggest amounts in addresses to automaker Subaru and yogurt company Chobani, both of which paid him $58,250.

Kelly, who is running to unseat Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), has given 12 speeches, for which he earned $290,400, since his February campaign announcement, according to Politico.

In April, his campaign told the Arizona Republic he would only give speeches to which he had already committed while running for Senate and not accept any new offers. He has two more scheduled in 2019.

“Like other astronauts, after a 25-year career in public service, Mark had a lot of speaking and business opportunities that came out of his experiences,” campaign spokesman Jacob Peters told Politico.

“As a candidate, he is proud to be transparent and share with Arizonans how his life experiences have shaped him and prepared him to be a different type of senator who is going to put Arizona ahead of corporate donors and party politics,” Peters added.

Kelly has promised not to accept donations from corporate political action committees and announced last week that he would make his schedules as a senator public.