Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona has long supported arms sales to Israel during his more than five years in the U.S. Senate and has received substantial financial backing from pro‑Israel political groups. That history made his most recent actions in the Senate notable: this week he voted to block certain military transfers to Israel that he had not opposed previously.
Kelly’s shift comes amid changing public attitudes toward Israel. A late‑March Pew Research Center poll of more than 3,500 Americans found rising negative views of Israel, particularly among younger people, with negative opinions outnumbering positive ones. That broader change in sentiment framed Kelly’s remarks and vote.
On the Senate floor, Kelly stressed that he would not abandon Israel but criticized aspects of the current regional conflict, saying the fighting in Iran is being conducted “without a clear strategy and goal” and expressing concern about Israeli strikes in Lebanon and actions in the West Bank. “Supporting a partner doesn’t mean that we cannot and will not ask tough questions,” he said, adding that recent developments were “not business as usual” and “are not making us safer.”
Kelly joined other Democrats in voting to block two specific sales: one to stop $295 million worth of bulldozers and another to block 12,000 one‑thousand‑pound bombs. Both measures ultimately failed in the Senate, but 40 Democrats voted to block the bulldozers and 36 to block the bombs. Kelly, who won election to a full Senate term in 2022, is also weighing a possible run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028; a Yale University poll of likely voters recently ranked him near the top of potential Democratic candidates on electability.
Meanwhile in Arizona politics, Sen. Ruben Gallego has been swept into controversy following the abrupt resignation of former Rep. Eric Swalwell amid allegations of sexual misconduct. Gallego and Swalwell were close friends and former roommates in Washington, which has prompted speculation and accusations even though no concrete wrongdoing by Gallego has been substantiated. Former Rep. George Santos has made unverified claims about a former Gallego staffer, but those assertions come from a figure with a record of falsehoods.
During the fallout, Gallego’s office posted a press‑secretary job opening that prompted questions, but the staff change was not new: the outgoing Arizona press secretary had already announced a move to work for another senator weeks earlier. Gallego’s communications director said the job posting was planned well in advance.
On other local matters, the House passed a bill to rename a Marana post office the Mayor Ed Honea Memorial Post Office. Honea was a longtime local official who served multiple terms on the town council and as mayor before his death in November 2024. In Tucson Unified School District news, a deputy‑superintendent job posting briefly featured photos of U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva, who left the TUSD board in 2022 after later winning a seat in Congress; the district removed the posting after it drew notice. A separate listing indicated the deputy superintendent role would start at about $120,322 per year.
