A traitor convicted of stealing government secrets running for elected office in the state right next to the capital, which contains millions of government secrets. Yeah... that's going to go real well for Chelsea.
There's no way she'll win. Even if she gets the nomination, I'm sure there's going to be too many apathetic liberals who will just stay home (and hand the victory over to the Republican). Best for her to step aside on this... even though she was pardoned, that doesn't mean it's off her record.
While it's great for promoting the LGBT community, what she's done is not right and she should not be in office. If she has released classified material in the past, why should we give her more access to such material.
Even taking a step back from her being famous for what she illegally did... based purely on qualifications, it would be a disaster to have someone like that as a senator. The extent of her entire adult life was being in the Army for a year or two, going to jail, and now posting on social media and giving interviews. That's just about the lowest possible qualifications someone could have for a job that powerful, and is not much different than a McDonald's cashier running for senator as far as experience and ability to do the job goes. How exactly does she plan on writing and understanding legislation when she has zero law related, public policy, public administration, business management etc. type of work experiences. There is a reason almost all senators have always been lawyers and businessmen... that's the experience a person needs to be capable of doing the job. This just seems like a publicity stunt if anything.
Even ignoring qualifications, and her infamy... her policies are deep into Anarchist territory. Enough that it feels disconnected from the reality of why we have certain institutions in our society, even if I maybe agree that they aren't living up to what I think the spirit of their purpose actually is.
A person who fragrantly defies professional obligations, the law and US security needs by releasing classified documents isn't exactly a person who should be given access to even more. Wanton anti-establishment behaviour does not make a qualified senator.
It falls into a very rare gray area of the law... but I researched it a bit and it appears that, yes, she actually is allowed to run for Senate. Ironically though, she probably won't be able to vote for herself since she is a convicted felon and felons lose their voting rights. Obama didn't fully pardon her which would have restored her voting rights, he just commuted her sentence, meaning he agreed she broke the law but thought the jail time was too excessive. The Constitution does not prevent a criminal from running for office, probably because the founding fathers could never envision a situation where a criminal would actually win an election. The only requirements are based on age and how long the person has lived in the United States. There are some individual states that made a state law preventing it, but Maryland is not one of them... so unfortunately she is allowed to do this.