Year in Review: Kelly Travels All Around Arizona to Hear from Constituents in 2023

By foot, by car, and even by plane, Kelly met with Arizonans across the state

Over the last year, Senator Mark Kelly traveled across the state to meet with families, students, seniors, veterans, small business owners, union workers, and local officials to hear from them about the issues facing their communities and the work he is doing for Arizona in the U.S. Senate.  

Central AZ 

Kelly traveled all around Central Arizona, stopping in Mammoth in Pinal County to meet with Mayor Patsy Armenta, members of the Mammoth Town Council, and the chief of police. Kelly also answered questions from Mammoth residents and checked out the town’s new patrol vehicle, which Kelly’s office helped secure federal funding for.  

Kelly was in the Valley frequently, convening a roundtable in Tempe on the historic drought Arizona is facing; touring the Rose Lane Recreation Center in Glendale to see broadband investments put to use; meeting with local veterans about new PACT Act benefits; discussing clean energy investments at Valley Metro with Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego; seeing workers earn while they learn at the Arizona Pipe Trades Joint Apprenticeship Training Center (JATC); and encouraging students at The Academies at South Mountain to pursue STEM careers or consider military service.  

Northern AZ 

Kelly also got around Northern Arizona, traveling to Flagstaff with Small Business Administration Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman where they talked about flood infrastructure and wildfire recovery.  

And he went to Prescott to speak with students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) about his time in the U.S. Navy and at NASA. There, he also visited the Adult Center of Prescott where he met with seniors and celebrated Prescott Meals on Wheels’ 50 years of service before meeting with Prescott Chamber of Commerce and touring several small businesses.    

Southern AZ 

Kelly’s visits to southern Arizona included spending time in border communities to meet with local officials and nonprofits to hear firsthand the challenges they face every day as migrant crossings continue to rise. 

At the beginning of the year, Kelly joined a bipartisan Senate delegation trip that started in El Paso, Texas and concluded in Yuma, Arizona. There, he led the group to the site of the barrier gaps near Morelos Dam that he has successfully worked to close. 

Kelly would go back to the border multiple times, flying himself to the groundbreaking ceremony for the San Luis I Land Port of Entry modernization and expansion project, the first major Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funded port project to break ground. And then flying to the cities of Bisbee and Nogales to meet with CBP agents, law enforcement officials, and nonprofits groups and tour the Mariposa Port of Entry.  

Kelly also stopped by the Tucson International Airport, where he championed the airport’s impact on the local economy and received an update on their airfield safety enhancement program, which is funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Once complete, the project will transform the airfield layout to improve passenger safety and boost the airport’s capacity.

In 2024, Senator Kelly will continue meeting constituents wherever they are to hear about their needs and to better advocate for them in Congress.