On February 12th, former NASA astronaut Mark Kelley announced on Twitter that he would be joining the campaign for the senate of Arizona. The special election in 2020 will determine who will take over for the late Sen. John McCain along with the last two years of his six-year term.

Kelly had posted a video on Twitter to announce that he was joining the senate campaign and in this video, he spoke about his family, his career and relevant topics such as gun control, affordable health care, job growth, and climate change.

“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.” He states.

Before Kelly started his campaign, he had set up a committee with his wife, Gabrielle Giffords called “Americans for Responsible Solutions”. This particular committee was dedicated to converse about solutions to gun violence while not taking away the Second Amendment rights.

How Kelly had come into the spotlight was when there was an assassination attempt on Representative Gabrielle Giffords, on January 18 of 2011. Giffords was shot in the head and had gone under intensive surgery before coming out healthy and alive. This event made him realize that there should be political change.

“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.”

Retiring from NASA to help support his wife from the incident in 2011, Kelly turned into a political activist so no one would have to suffer more in the future with better policies.