R epresentative Ruben Gallego (D., Ariz.) is a fast walker.
Flanked by several aides on his way out of the Speaker’s Lobby after a recent House floor vote, the Democratic Senate candidate gave National Review about 90 seconds to ask questions before he reached his getaway car outside and cut the conversation short.
Now that he’s successfully nudged Democratic-turned-independent senator Kyrsten Sinema out of running for reelection this cycle, is he actively courting her endorsement?
“We reached out right after she decided not to run again,” the 44-year-old congressman told NR in the brief interview last month.
“And, of course,” he added, “the whole time, we’ve been talking to, reaching out to Sinema supporters, whether they’re elected officials, or that volunteer for her campaign, we’ve gotten people that have supported her in the past [who] are supporting us now and we’re looking forward to continue that work, and continue to build a coalition to win.”
So, short answer: He has extended an olive branch. Not that convincing Sinema to endorse him in the race to replace her will be an easy sell, given that he’s one of the reasons she’s seeking an early retirement. “We have to get her out of the way,” Gallego told Time magazine the week he launched his Senate campaign in January 2023. “Nobody trusts her.”
What may also be a tough sell is his ongoing attempt to strike a moderate profile with voters and back away from his deep progressive record in Congress — for instance, on immigration.
“I’m not against border walls,” Gallego told NR when asked about his prior criticism of Donald Trump’s border-wall policy and whether he’s running to the center on the issue. “I think border walls are part of an overall comprehensive security.”
“But the idea that you could just have one massive border wall,” he continued, “in areas sometimes you don’t need it — it’s gonna cost you a lot of money. It doesn’t actually end up bringing security. And behind every border wall, you’re going to need to have personnel, you’re gonna have to have maintenance, you’re gonna have cameras, and there was really no plan. And you also got to remember, Mexico was supposed to pay for it. And that never came around.”
He now calls the situation at the southern border a “crisis.” And, prior to the end of Title 42 in February 2023 — the pandemic-era policy he’d lobbied against two years earlier — he sent letters to Biden administration officials urging the White House to allocate federal funding to Arizona to address the surge in migrants. In September, he successfully petitioned Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for $2 million in border funding for Arizona, and three months later, he urged Biden to issue an emergency declaration at the southwest border to address the fallout from repealing Title 42, among other efforts.
This, from a lawmaker who previously called Trump’s wall “useless” and railed against the use of Title 42 to expel migrants. The stark change in tone is indicative of a difficult race in which both likely major-party rivals are scrambling to find their policy footing.
Sinema’s decision in March to bow out of a reelection bid set the stage for a hotly contested general-election battle between Gallego and likely GOP Senate nominee Kari Lake, a former Arizona newscaster turned MAGA celebrity who is polling well ahead of her only serious Republican rival, Mark Lamb, whom she’ll face in the July 30 primary. (A Sinema spokesman did not respond to a request for comment from NR about whether the retiring senator plans to endorse in the race for her seat — one that may determine control of the U.S. Senate next year.)
Like Gallego, who is now working overtime to shed his progressive persona, Lake is tacking to the center on policy — specifically abortion — in her bid to win over centrists and independents. She’s scored endorsements from high-profile Republicans like Senate GOP whip John Thune and Senate GOP campaign chief Steve Daines, both of whom are fundraising for her. And sources tell NR she’s striking a more disciplined tone behind closed doors these days with prospective GOP donors, leaning into her personal backstory and often characterizing Gallego as her “far-left opponent” in her bid to score big checks.
Her campaign still has work to do to appeal to the more establishment-minded Republicans at home and in Washington who are irked by her incendiary rhetoric and election denialism. (She continues to insist that she won Arizona’s 2022 governor’s race.)
Yet Lake has one major leg up over Gallego — no voting record.
Republicans looking to damage Gallego’s credibility on border issues have a yearslong congressional record to work with, along with a deep well of old social-media posts and press releases in which Gallego has called Trump’s border wall “ridiculous,” “stupid,” and a “giant waste of money,” aimed at “trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.” Back in 2021, he joined dozens of House Democrats in demanding that Mayorkas “end the practice of summarily expelling migrants” under Title 42 “as soon as practicable,” referring to the Trump administration’s pandemic-era policy allowing the expulsion of migrants, including those who were seeking asylum.
These days, he strikes a much more moderate tone on the issue.
He also no longer identifies as a “progressive,” even though he embraced the label in his 2022 fundraising emails. Last year, he let his Congressional Progressive Caucus membership lapse, telling Axios recently that he didn’t renew his membership because of an increase in dues. He dodges questions about whether he still identifies as a progressive, telling NBC News last month that he considers himself “an Arizona member of Congress who works across the aisle with everybody.”
For Republicans, Gallego’s liberal-record lowlights also include his decision to cosponsor the “No Money Bail Act of 2016” to “discourage the use of payment of money as a condition of pretrial release in criminal cases, and for other purposes,” as well as the “Expanded & Improved Medicare For All Act” in 2017 to “provide all individuals residing in the United States and U.S. territories with free health care that includes all medically necessary care.” He also introduced legislation during the pandemic that would allow insurance companies to “target premium increases to eligible Americans who haven’t gotten the COVID-19 vaccine.”
And, unlike Sinema, he supports “get[ting] rid of the filibuster,” the upper chamber’s 60-vote threshold for passing legislation.
Early polls suggest that a race between Gallego and Lake would be competitive. The Democratic congressman had $9.6 million on hand at the end of last quarter, compared with Lake’s $2.5 million, according to Federal Election Commission reports. The race’s abortion-centric dynamic and Gallego’s cash advantage recently led Sabato’s Crystal Ball to change its electoral rating of the race from “toss-up” to “leans Democratic.”
Gallego’s early cash advantage will likely help him fend off some Republican attacks. He’s already on air with biographical TV ads that tout his military service in Iraq and upbringing in a single-parent, low-income household. And he heads into the fall with a stunning $23 million in ad reservations from the Senate Majority PAC, a Chuck Schumer–aligned spending group helping Senate Democrats play defense in a number of battlegrounds this cycle.
Last month, the Democratic congressman appeared alongside Vice President Kamala Harris in Tucson during a recent White House campaign stop about abortion rights. But for now, at least, whether Gallego plans to distance himself from his party’s unpopular incumbent president on the campaign trail remains to be seen.