---
title: "Top Pick for Kamala Harris’ VP Is a Former NASA Astronaut"
description: "Kamala Harris is all but guaranteed to be the Democrats' presidential nominee — and one her biggest VP contenders used to be an astronaut."
date: "2024-07-23"
modified: "2024-07-23"
authors:
  - name: "Noor Al-Sibai"
    job_title: "Senior Staff Writer"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai"
url: "https://futurism.com/top-vp-pick-harris-astronaut"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
  - "NASA"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "astronauts"
  - "NASA"
  - "politics"
  - "vice president"
---

# Top Pick for Kamala Harris’ VP Is a Former NASA Astronaut

![Kamala Harris is all but guaranteed to be the Democrats' presidential nominee — and one her biggest VP contenders used to be an astronaut.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/top-vp-pick-harris-astronaut.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Drew Angerer via Getty\</em\>*

Now that President Joe Biden has officially dropped out of the presidential race, current VP [Kamala Harris is all but guaranteed](<https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c51ywewzpz2o>) to be the Democrats' nominee — and one of the [biggest contenders to be *her* veep](<https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/22/politics/vp-shortlist-kamala-harris/index.html>) was once a NASA astronaut.

As [numerous](<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/07/22/kamala-harris-mark-kelly-vp-2024/>) [outlets](<https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/live-updates/biden-drops-out-updates?id=112113289&amp;entryId=112193865&amp;cid=social_twitter_abcn>) [have](<https://www.newsweek.com/mark-kelly-vice-president-kamala-harris-1928898>) [reported](<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/23/kamala-harris-vp-pick>), Mark Kelly, the 60-year-old junior senator from Arizona and former NASA astronaut who [traveled to the International Space Station](<https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/kelly_mark.pdf>) multiple times during the 2000s and early 2010s, is one of the most exciting and electable candidates on the Democrats' rumored shortlist of VP picks.

After serving in the Navy as a combat pilot and captain, Kelly spent a decade with NASA, often as a pilot aboard Space Shuttle missions. Though [not the first astronaut-turned-politician](<https://time.com/5528036/mark-kelly-astronauts-politicians/>), Kelly would be the first astronaut on a presidential ticket, and given that he and his twin Scott are [the only siblings to ever have traveled to space](<https://njhalloffame.org/2017-inductees/mark-and-scott-kelly/>), it would make this already-uncommon man all the more so.

Among Kelly's bona fides are his strong and deeply personal convictions about gun control that took center stage after his wife [Gabby Giffords](<https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2024/07/22/mark-kelly-vice-president-response-gabby-giffords/74502290007/>), then a congresswoman representing Arizona, was shot and nearly killed by a would-be assassin in 2011.

In the wake of that Tuscon shooting, which also resulted in the deaths of six people and 13 others being wounded, and the [Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre](<https://www.npr.org/series/167276841/shootings-in-newtown-conn>) just a year later, Giffords and Kelly [launched a gun control campaign](<https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20949405>) that has pushed for [universal background checks](<https://giffords.org/lawcenter/gun-laws/policy-areas/background-checks/universal-background-checks/>) and other restrictions on the purchase of deadly weapons.

While his [twin brother](<https://futurism.com/nasa-twin-study-kelly-preliminary>) is [much more vocal](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/scott-kelly-support-ukraine-president>) about international politics, the [senator and VP contender](<https://www.thedailybeast.com/mark-kelly-spaceman-heroand-kamala-harris-best-choice-for-vp>) also has the kind of [middle-of-the-road white man vibe](<https://www.jezebel.com/these-are-the-non-controversial-white-men-most-likely-to-join-kamala-harris-on-the-democratic-ticket>) that Harris and the Democrats are almost certainly looking for in a running mate, too.

Overall, Kelly seems not just like a compelling individual with a unique story, but also like someone the Democrats would want in their corner come November.

Plus, being an astronaut just might woo more voters than being a Yale graduate who [exploited the poverty of their upbringing](<https://time.com/6999981/j-d-vance-appalachia-history/>) to score a spot on the *New York Times*' bestseller list.

**More on politics:** [*Former Congressman Says the RNC Is the "Grindr Super Bowl"*](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/george-santos-grindr-rnc-superbowl>)

## Author
At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/noorfromfuturism.bsky.social>)