Border state hawk Mark Kelly as VP pick could help shield Harris on a major liability

WASHINGTON — Three months after he became a senator in 2021, Mark Kelly had a bone to pick with the Biden-Harris administration.

President Joe Biden had just given his first address to Congress, and Kelly, D-Ariz., accused him of failing to address “the immediate crisis at the border” and vowed to “continue holding this administration accountable” on the issue. At the time, the White House was reluctant to call it a crisis, siding with activists on the left who believed the word played into anti-immigration GOP rhetoric.

While he has been a Biden ally on most issues, Kelly remained a vocal critic on border security. He went after the White House for inadequately funding Arizona’s migrant programs and urged the administration not to reverse a Trump-era policy known as Title 42, which made it easier to turn away migrants at the U.S. border. When the White House revoked the policy anyway in 2022, Kelly called the decision “wrong” and “unacceptable” in a statement.

Two years later, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have recalibrated, issuing executive actions last month to crack down on migration. And Kelly is on the short list to be Harris’ running mate after Biden dropped his re-election bid.

“We’ve worked together on it in a very positive way. At times, there were disagreements,” Kelly told NBC News while praising “the steps that the administration has recently taken and the results that we have seen from it” in bringing down border crossings.

“The executive action that the president and vice president put into place has been a very positive thing,” Kelly said.

‘Legitimate credibility on border security’

Kelly’s stature as a border-state senator who has held hawkish positions before it was popular in the party has led some Harris allies to see him as an ideal running mate who could help neutralize what may be her biggest political vulnerability. Former President Donald Trump has put immigration at the center of his case against her. And unlike other VP contenders, such as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Kelly is the only one getting a serious look who lives in a state along the southern border and has been out front on the issue.

“Mark Kelly is the only candidate that does exactly what [Harris] needs to do. She needs to have legitimate credibility on border security. … Kelly solves that and increases the share of the Latino vote,” said Mike Madrid, a former GOP operative who…