Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) warned that the Democratic Party could be “in trouble” in the 2028 presidential election when it comes to securing the support of Latino voters if Secretary of State Marco Rubio is the Republican Party’s nominee.
“If Marco Rubio is the nominee to be president of the United States, we’re in trouble,” Gallego said before the Latino Vote Summit in Washington.
Rubio, who has not announced any plans yet, has been pitted as a likely 2028 contender alongside Vice President JD Vance by political pundits and President Donald Trump himself. Gallego, on the other hand, has also been seen as a likely candidate on the Democratic side of the 2028 ballot. Both Gallego and Rubio are Latinos and have been vocal about how important the Latino vote is to each party.
“You’re playing with a lot less territory if Rubio is on the ticket, not because his policies are going to be great,” Gallego said at the summit, per CBS. “We’re going to hit him on everything we can, obviously, about how bad he is on that, but there is some voter out there, without a doubt, that’s just going to be excited about having the first Latino candidate running for president on a major ticket.”
Republicans have also performed well among Latinos in recent elections.
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In the 2024 presidential election, then-Vice President Kamala Harris lost ground with the Latino vote as Trump overperformed expectations. In Passaic County, New Jersey, for example, where about 46% of residents are Hispanic or Latino, Trump flipped the county in 2024, winning 49.8% of the vote in a county that former President Joe Biden won with 57.7% in 2020.
Gallego told the crowd that Democrats have to focus more of their attention on the Latino vote and reshape their immigration messaging to have success in 2028, according to the Bulwark.