John Trent Kelly

U.S. House of Representatives (R-MS 1st District)

• John Trent Kelly has represented Mississippi’s first district in Congress since 2015. He has also served in the Mississippi Army National Guard since 1986, and was deployed to the first and second Gulf Wars, characterized by staggering U.S. violations of international law and excessive amounts of Iraqi civilian deaths.

• As a member of the military, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and a dedicated conservative, Kelly’s bill sponsorship has been marked by attempts to extend U.S. military presence abroad, hinder abortion and sexual reproductive rights, and oppose government spending in areas such as student loan forgiveness and climate change mitigation, among other issues.

• Kelly has also had a strong relationship with the Israel lobby since his first years in Congress. In 2017, he took a trip to Israel sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Council (AIPAC)-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation and, since 2019, he has received more than 60,000 USD from AIPAC in the form of campaign contributions and lobbying combined.

• Since his first election in 2015, the industries from which Kelly has received the most campaign contributions are crop production and processing and the defense and aerospace industries. Among donations received since 2018, Kelly’s second largest campaign donor is General Atomics, a manufacturer of drones and other arms currently being used by Israel.

• Kelly has sponsored at least 18 aggressively pro-Israel bills in the U.S. House of Representatives, which range from sanctioning federal officials that attempt to halt the delivery of arms to Israel, to approving grants to support Israel’s development of nuclear technology and seeking to abolish United Nations

Read the full profile here.