Is Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly dropping his bid for re-election after learning he's lost 40 points in the polls among veterans? No, that's not true: The story is entirely made up. It originated from a network of self-described satire websites that place multiple disclaimers on their content saying that nothing they publish is real.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by the account @AmericaLoveItOrLeaveIt on Facebook on Aug. 13, 2026. It read:
Arizona Senator Mark Kelly is dropping his bid for re-election after learning he's lost 40 points in the polls among veterans.
'The voting bloc that put him in office is disgusted with him,' said Arizona Political Pundit Joseph Barron. 'He has no chance, and he knows it.'
Kelly has been sliding with that demographic ever since he made the 'Seditious Six' video encouraging soldiers to disobey orders.
'It was a huge mistake that will cost him his career.'
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @AmericaLoveItOrLeaveIt on Facebook.)
The Facebook account @AmericaLoveItOrLeaveIt is part of the "America's Last Line of Defense" network of satire websites run by self-described liberal troll Christopher Blair from Maine along with a loose confederation of friends and allies. He runs several websites and Facebook pages with visible satire disclaimers everywhere. They mostly publish made-up stories with headlines specifically created to trigger Republicans, conservatives and evangelical Christians into angrily sharing or commenting on the story on Facebook without actually reading the full article, exposing them to mockery and ridicule by fans of the sites and pages.
Every site in the network has an about page that reads (in part):
Nothing on this page is real.
The post mentions "Arizona Political Pundit Joseph Barron." Barron was a friend of Blair's who passed away. His name is frequently used in Blair's satirical stories as an homage.
The @AmericaLoveItOrLeaveIt bio on Facebook clearly states "nothing on this page is real." This is a screenshot of the account at the time of writing:
(Image source: @AmericaLoveItOrLeaveIt on Facebook.)
The image used in the post has a tag that reads, "NOTHING ON THIS PAGE IS REAL." This is a screenshot of the post on Facebook (red circle added by Lead Stories):
(Image source: post by @AmericaLoveItOrLeaveIt on Facebook.)
Articles from Blair's sites frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites that omit the disclaimer plus hints that the stories are fake. This @AmericaLoveItOrLeaveIt post was picked up by other social media accounts that posted the details without noting it was satire. One such account, @macafeenew on X (archived here), shared the claim on Sept. 9, 2026, without the satire label. This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @macafeenew on X.)
Kelly is a popular senator from Arizona who might run for president in 2028. News of him dropping out of his re-election campaign would have been covered by major news outlets. Lead Stories searched Google News (archived here) and Yahoo News (archived here) and did not find any matching news reports.
