Donations keep flowing for Mark Kelly since Trump ‘sedition’ accusation

WASHINGTON – Sen. Mark Kelly’s campaign war chest has continued to explode since President Donald Trump accused him of sedition last fall. 

Kelly raised about $13 million in the first three months of 2026. That’s on top of $12.5 million in the previous quarter, most of which poured in after Nov. 18, when he and five other congressional Democrats called on military personnel to disobey illegal orders. 

Two days later, Trump called the video an act of sedition “punishable by death.” Four days after that, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth labeled those Democrats, all veterans of the military or CIA, the “seditious six.” He then ordered a post-retirement demotion for Kelly, a former combat pilot and astronaut who left the Navy as a captain.

“I’m sure that Trump and Hegseth’s attacks on Kelly over the video …  is driving a lot of this fundraising, although Kelly already was a great fundraiser,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.

Kondik called Kelly’s funding haul “impressive in any instance” but especially for a senator who is not on the ballot this year.

The nearly $26 million in six months is nearly five times the typical pace since Kelly won his first six-year term in 2022, two years after winning the seat in a special election. 

He raised $89.2 million for the 2022 campaign, according to OpenSecrets, which tracks money in politics. 

By comparison, freshman Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, also a Democrat, raised $63.8 million winning his seat in 2024. 

The flood of donations late last year fueled speculation that Kelly could be in position to mount a serious run for president in 2028, when he would also face reelection to the Senate.

Under a 2017 Arizona law, Kelly could run for both offices simultaneously. 

His ongoing momentum with donors has done nothing to dampen the 2028 speculation or limit his options, campaign experts said. But the outpouring wasn’t entirely spontaneous.

“It is a function of his concerted effort to use his conflict with Trump to his advantage. Donors are going to be sympathetic with someone they see as being unfairly attacked by Trump,” said Brendan Glavin, the director of insights for OpenSecrets.

On Nov. 25, Hegseth directed Navy Secretary John Phelan to review Kelly’s comments on the video and investigate “serious allegations of misconduct.” 

Military retirees remain subject to discipline under military law, though it’s exceedingly rare for cases to be brought for conduct after leaving the service.

Over the next several weeks, Kelly posted a series of videos vowing that he would not “back down.”

“This is about all of us. This is about every member of the military, every retired person, every U.S. citizen,” he said.

On Jan. 5, Hegseth announced that Kelly would be censured and demoted. The senator sued a week later.

On Feb. 10, a federal grand jury rejected a Justice Department effort to indict Kelly and the five others in the video. 

Two days later, Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia handed the Trump administration another loss, issuing an order to temporarily prevent Kelly’s demotion. The judge also chastised the Pentagon for trying to intimidate a member of the legislative branch, especially one who sits on the committee that oversees it.

“This Court has all it needs to conclude that Defendants have trampled on Senator Kelly’s First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees,” he wrote.

The Department of Justice appealed the preliminary injunction. Oral arguments are scheduled for May 7. 

The political and legal scuffles raised Kelly’s profile and gave Democratic donors an outlet for their anti-Trump views.

After raising about $2.6 million from July to September, according to federal campaign filings, Kelly went into the third quarter at roughly the same steady pace. From Oct. 1 to Nov. 20, when Trump accused him of sedition, he brought in about $1 million of itemized individual contributions and donations from political action committees. 

The bulk of his fourth quarter donations came in over the next six weeks.

“Donald Trump was thoughtful enough to elevate him to national attention,” said Brad Bannon, a national Democratic strategist. “Trump and Hegseth’s attacks on his patriotism made him a social media star, which is an essential ingredient in a presidential campaign.” 

Time magazine named Kelly one of the “100 most influential people” in its April issue. He was the only member of Congress to make the “leaders” list, which includes Trump and members of his administration, as well as such foreign leaders as President Xi Jinping of China and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of Japan.

Kelly called his inclusion “quite an honor” and promised to “defend our rights from a White House trying to bully millions of veterans into silence.”

“It isn’t just about me – it’s about every American,” he posted on X. 

As of March 31, Kelly had $22.3 million cash on hand. 

Glavin said the donations showered on Kelly don’t necessarily mean supporters are encouraging him to run for president or even his re-election bid; it’s more a way to show displeasure with Trump. 

“Right now, this is really detached from his potential 2028 re-election,” he said.

But the presidency is on Kelly’s mind. In a Feb. 16 BBC interview, he said he would “seriously consider” a run. In 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris had him on the short list for vice president before choosing Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota. 

“I think she felt that since she was such an established figure in D.C., she would be better off if she selected someone outside of D.C., like a governor,” he said. “I don’t think it was anything against Kelly.”

There is no clear frontrunner in the 2028 Democratic contest.

Harris has led in every major poll since January, with a rolling average of 27%, according to RealClearPolitics, followed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. 

Kelly is not listed on those polls, though a Yale Youth Poll published on April 14 found that Democratic voters under 35 view him the second most-electable Democrat, edged out only by Newsom. But if the election were held now, younger voters would pick Harris, Newsom, Buttigieg and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over Kelly.

While Kelly isn’t showing up in national polls of primary voters so far, he is one of a few prospective candidates with a serious pile of cash. 

Although Newsom has $37.5 million in his gubernatorial account, for instance, those funds cannot be used for a federal campaign. 

Harris has just $1.7 million left over from her 2024 White House bid. 

In the 2020 election, Joe Biden raised $1.6 billion to defeat Donald Trump. In 2024, Trump won back the presidency after raising $1.5 billion. But it costs far less to get traction in the handful of early primary states that weed out the field.

“Twenty-five million dollars is not a bad place to start,” Bannon said.

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