PHOENIX (AP) — Democratic Senate candidate Mark Kelly released his first campaign ad of the 2020 election on Thursday, looking to introduce himself to Arizona voters in the face of attack ads from his Republican rival.

Kelly's minute-long ad shows him wearing a black T-shirt and working on a motorcycle, and later laughing around a table with his family including former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt.

“My parents didn’t have a lot of extra money, but you could comfortably raise a family on a middle-class income, and it doesn’t work so well today,” Kelly says in the ad. “Now my hope for Arizona is that everybody has the conditions and an environment that allows anybody to accomplish anything they want, if they’re just willing to work hard at it.”

Kelly, a retired astronaut, says in the ad he wasn't the best student but managed to grow up to fly Navy jets and command the space shuttle.

His ads begin airing a week after Republican Sen. Martha McSally took to the airwaves with ads seeking to tie Kelly to left-wing Democrats. Kelly has positioned himself as a centrist with an independent mind in a state that has traditionally elected Republicans but has valued politicians willing to break with their party, such as the late Republican Sen. John McCain.