U.S. Senate hopeful Kelly sells himself as a centrist Democrat hoping to appeal to a broad Arizona electorate in an attempt to unseat Republican Martha McSally in 2020.
Warren, meanwhile, is banking on a progressive platform to win her the Democratic nomination for president. Of the serious Democratic candidates for president, only Bernie Sanders sits further left of Warren on the political spectrum.
Kelly has not and probably will not endorse Warren for the 2020 election (unless she wins the nomination). In fact, as campaign spokesperson Jacob Peters said in a text Thursday to Phoenix New Times, Kelly has not endorsed anyone for president.
But you might get different ideas if you follow the Arizona Republican Party on Twitter. In a pair of tweets on Tuesday, the state GOP claimed Kelly "endorses" Warren.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg... #AZSen pic.twitter.com/halbXBaqpM
— AZ Republican Party (@AZGOP) June 27, 2019
The tweets attempt to tar Kelly's moderate reputation by associating him with Warren's calls for eliminating private health insurance, offering free college tuition, and increasing income taxes. (On the latter issue, the AZ GOP misstates Warren's proposal as a 70 percent income tax rate. In fact, Warren proposed a 2 percent tax hike on all household wealth above $50 million.)Mark Kelly endorses Elizabeth Warren. Does he also support her socialist policies? #AZSen pic.twitter.com/7HnpaVvEIO
— AZ Republican Party (@AZGOP) June 27, 2019
It's not entirely clear where the Arizona Republican Party got the idea that Kelly endorsed Warren. The first of its two tweets cites as a source Giffords PAC, the anti-gun violence political action committee founded by Kelly and his wife, former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords' PAC has endorsed Warren before, but not for president. In 2018, the PAC backed Warren in her Senate re-election campaign against her Republican opponent.
The Arizona Republican Party did not respond to request for comment.
