Former astronaut Mark Kelly, a Democrat running for the Senate seat from Arizona, earned $1.8 million in paid speeches over the last 18 months, Politico is reporting.
The website attributed the information to Kelly's personal financial disclosure forms filed Tuesday evening. It also noted the figure included $290,400 that Kelly picked up for a dozen speeches he has made since launching his campaign in early February.
Kelly is hoping to unseat Republican Sen. Martha McSally. The winner will fill the final two years of the late Sen. John McCain's term, according to Politico.
The Arizona Republic reported that Kelly, the husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, has agreed to honor the speaking engagements he committed to prior to announcing his candidacy.
"Like other astronauts, after a 25-year career in public service, Mark had a lot of speaking and business opportunities that came out of his experiences," spokesperson Jacob Peters said.
Kelly has pledged not to accept corporate PAC donations.
He tweeted Tuesday: "We've got too many politicians in Washington who only care about politics and their corporate donors — that's not me. By releasing my official Senate schedule, I'm going to make sure Arizonans can see how I'm working for them."
But Republicans have been critical of the vow on corporate donations.
Joanna Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, called Kelly a "hypocrite," according to Politico. She also criticized him for releasing his disclosure forms during the second Democratic presidential primary debates.
Politico reported Kelly is worth between $10 million and $27 million in assets.
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