Contact Information
Candidate Background
Candidacy
Jesse Kelly was born in Steubenville, Ohio, and currently lives in Marana, Ariz. He is a political newcomer.
He served as a U.S. Marine Corps sergeant from 2000 to 2004, and was deployed to Iraq in 2003. He currently is a project manager for his family's contracting company, Don Kelly Construction, which does major pipeline and other infrastructure projects across the country.
The Republican and tea party favorite is trying to oust sitting Democrat Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona's 8th District in the 2010 general election.
Kelly and his wife, Aubrey, have two sons.
Profile
Jesse Kelly is running for Congress as a fiscal conservative and upset well-funded establishment Republican candidate Jonathan Paton in the August 2010 primary for Arizona's 8th Congressional District.
The Kelly campaign says he made the decision to run for political office "the day President Obama signed the wasteful, $787 billion stimulus package."
Kelly called for the privatization of Social Security on the primary campaign trail, but has since called for strengthening Social Security and creating some private retirement accounts.
He wants the March 2010 health care reform law rescinded and advocates cutting government bureaucracy by 20 percent. He backs the elimination of the corporate income tax, slashing the capital gains tax, a flat 10 percent income tax, and the elimination of the minimum wage.
His campaign has drawn endorsements from Mitt Romney, economist Arthur Laffer and other fiscal conservatives.
Kelly has consistently called for the elimination of government stimulus spending, but was criticized by a primary opponent because his family's construction company has repeatedly benefitted from contracts funded with that money.
Campaigns
Jesse Kelly is a tea party favorite for Arizona's 8th Congressional District who beat out establishment Republican candidate and former state lawmaker Jonathan Paton in the August 2010 primary.
Some of his far-right positions have become fodder for incumbent Democrat Gabrielle Giffords, who immediately attacked him on his calls for the privatization of Social Security. He faces her in the November 2010 election.
(Last updated by Bob Christie on September 15, 2010.)
