Former astronaut Mark Kelly, who ousted incumbent Republican Martha McSally in last month’s election, was sworn in Wednesday as a U.S. senator from Arizona.Kelly, a Democrat, will serve the remaining two years in the seat once held by longtime Senator John McCain, a prisoner of war in the 1960s in Vietnam and the Republican presidential candidate in 2008. McCain died in 2018 after having served two years of a six-year term. McSally was appointed to replace him in 2018 but lost to Kelly in a special election.Kelly will be up for a full six-year term in the 2022 election. He was sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence.He is the husband of former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt by a gunman in 2011. Since then, she and Kelly have become vocal gun control advocates. Giffords watched her husband’s swearing-in from the Senate gallery.Kelly’s victory gave Democrats control of the Southwestern state’s two Senate seats for the first time in more than six decades as the traditionally Republican state, with a growing Hispanic population, has turned into a political battleground.President-elect Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump in Arizona, the first Democratic presidential contender to win the state since 1996.
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