WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona is jumping into the U.S. Senate race, declaring a run on Monday for the seat currently held by newly independent Sen. Krysten Sinema.
“I have been deeply humbled by the encouragement I have received from the people of Arizona, and today I am answering the call to serve,” Gallego said in a campaign announcement. “I’m running for the U.S. Senate because the rich and the powerful don’t need any more advocates in Washington — but families who can’t afford groceries do. As a Marine, I never back down from a fight, and in the Senate I’ll fight to make sure every Arizonan has the same chance that I had at the American Dream.”
Sinema, who ousted GOP Sen. Martha McSally in 2018 after serving three terms in the House, has not publicly said whether she will run for reelection next year. Last month, she formalized her estrangement with the Democratic Party and registered as an independent.
“The problem isn’t that Senator Sinema abandoned the Democratic Party — it’s that she’s abandoned Arizona,” Gallego said, adding that she had sided with the pharmaceutical industry and Wall Street “at our expense.”
Sinema had already been facing a movement to challenge her in the Democratic primary, an effort that gained steam when she sided with Republicans against relaxing Senate rules that require 60 votes to end a filibuster on most legislation. The Senate race in Arizona, an intensely competitive state, has the potential to become a messy, three-way contest between Gallego, Sinema and a Republican nominee.
“The Democrat civil war is on in Arizona. [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer has a choice: stand with open borders radical Ruben Gallego or back his incumbent, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema,” said Philip Letsou, a spokesman for the the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
The Gallego campaign said it has assembled a team of veteran Democratic operatives who helped Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Mark Kelly of Arizona win.
Gallego, a Harvard graduate and former Marine who served in Iraq, was first elected to Congress in 2014. A member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, he has backed for a number of liberal proposals, including a $15 hourly minimum wage and marijuana legalization.
On Monday, Gallego released a campaign video in English and Spanish that traces his biography as the son of a struggling single mother who immigrated to the U.S. from Colombia. He recalled sleeping on the floor of the family’s apartment and hearing his mother sob every night. “Statistically, I was never supposed to end up even in college,” he said.
Last week, Rep. Greg Stanton, Gallego’s Democratic colleague from Phoenix, announced that he was forgoing a Senate campaign. Stanton, the former mayor of Phoenix, said it wasn’t the right time for him to run.
Arizona is a politically purple state with a strong independent streak. Last year, Democrats scored two major victories: the party’s gubernatorial nominee, Katie Hobbs, defeated Republican Kari Lake, and Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly beat Republican Blake Masters by almost 5 percentage points.
Potential Republican candidates for Senate include Lake and Masters.
Minutes after Gallego officially launched his campaign, the NRSC issued a press release painting him as a “radical” who favors open borders.
Gallego had about $1.1 million in his campaign account as of Nov. 28, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission.
