Republicans are urging their party not to overlook the groundwork Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) could be laying for a presidential campaign, warning that his appeal to the political middle could make him a serious threat in 2028.
Gallego, elected to the Senate last year in purple Arizona, is set to hold a town hall on Saturday in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County, a 2024 battleground that backed President Donald Trump. The visit, reported by Politico on Monday, is adding to whispers about his possible national aspirations.
He is hardly the only Democrat to hit the road, as governors and lawmakers attempt to stake out a lane in what could be a crowded primary. But he represents one of the Democrats more openly creating daylight with his party after they were swept out of power.
One senior aide to a GOP senator with close ties to Gallego called him a “worst-case scenario” for the GOP in 2028, citing his political instincts and attempts to court the working-class voters who powered Trump’s coalition in 2024.
In November, Gallego successfully defied the political odds, winning a closely watched Senate race even as Democrats faltered nationally.
“When we look around as Republicans, at the potential Democratic challengers in ‘28, we would love to see AOC, Gavin Newsom, and others that appeal to the base, because it is a losing strategy for [Democrats],” the aide said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Gallego outperformed Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket by nearly 8 points and secured support from working-class, Latino, and independent voters who trended Republican in other battlegrounds.
“What we would not like to see from an electoral standpoint is Ruben Gallego … he has the understanding and the core instinct to appeal to the coalition that Democrats need to win back the White House, and there’s no greater proof than what he did in Arizona,” the person said.
In an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer published on Wednesday, Gallego framed his visit to Pennsylvania as an attempt to ramp up pressure on Democrats he suggested are “acting swiftly” to oppose Trump “without a clear plan.”
“Democrats still look like the party that brought a knife to a gunfight,” Gallego writes. “And honestly, it’s not as easy as just standing up to Donald Trump at every possible chance. Voters want Washington to work. They want their elected leaders to work together and solve problems, not score points.”
Some Republicans believe Gallego does not have the appeal needed to succeed in a presidential race. Critics note that he ran against one of the weakest GOP Senate candidates of the cycle. Kari Lake, his Republican opponent, ran a bombastic campaign that gave Gallego an easier time to claim the middle lane.
One GOP strategist, also speaking on condition of anonymity, dismissed Gallego’s national ambitions as little more than a long-shot audition unlikely to lead to real influence.
“Ruben Gallego will never be at the top of the ticket, but if he wants to spend the next two years on the road trying out for a Cabinet position he’ll never get, no one in Washington will miss him,” the strategist said.
Still, Gallego is on the radar of Republicans as the Democratic field for president begins to take shape. A former senior GOP Hill staffer now working on K Street said Gallego would be a formidable contender if Democrats pivot from the left and rally behind a more centrist candidate, pointing to the Arizona senator’s military service and election pitch last November.
“As a Republican, I’m more than excited to see Jasmine Crockett and AOC and Bernie Sanders be their spokesperson,” the person said.
“If I were advising Democrats, I would say, break this fever quickly, because that doesn’t have appeal to the American people like you think it does,” the person added. “If the Democrats were smart, they would wake up to this fact. But, you know, I’m still a Republican, so I’m hoping they don’t wake up to it.”
Mike Noble, an independent pollster who has conducted extensive research in the Southwest, said Gallego’s perceived crossover appeal, especially with working-class and minority voters, positions him as a serious national contender at a time when Democrats are searching for a new standard-bearer.
Newsom, the California governor, has attempted a rebrand, hosting MAGA loyalists on his podcast and calling the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia a distraction for the party. But not all Democrats believe the answer to their election loss is moderation — some are staking their own national ambitions on appealing to a base that is clamoring for Democrats to fight the new administration loudly.
Gallego, too, has vocally criticized Trump, but he has infused his message with a note of bipartisanship and a focus on economic issues.
“Ruben was outperforming the top of the ticket and he resonates better, especially with the core demographic groups the Democrats lost this past election cycle, especially blue-collar and minority voters,” Noble said, speaking with the Washington Examiner.
Noble acknowledged that Gallego’s opponent was flawed but argued that he still ran a disciplined campaign in a tough year for Democrats.
“You don’t really get to pick and choose who your opponent is. What I can say, from being a third-party observer, the contest Ruben ran an incredibly well-disciplined and a strategic campaign,” Noble said. “If you were to ask anybody to point to one really big gaffe or really big mishap or something along those lines in the campaign, you really can’t point to one.”
The attacks that defined Gallego’s Senate run would likely be resurrected in a presidential campaign, most prominently accusations that he abandoned his wife. Gallego’s ex-wife publicly endorsed his campaign, but the Republicans focused heavily on the issue in the general election.
He would also have to defend his pivot to the middle on select issues. Once a staunch member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus in the House, Gallego today distances himself from the label and has made a point to co-sponsor border measures that signal pragmatism on immigration.
In November, Republicans used Democrats’ changing stances, including that of Harris, to paint their opponents as pretend centrists.
The former senior GOP staffer doesn’t believe Gallego’s move to the center will hurt his chances, arguing that his message, not rigid ideology, is what wins statewide and national races, especially outside deep-blue districts.
“His congressional district is different than his entire state. And when he needed to be viable in the entire state, he had to moderate a little bit,” the person said.
“The entire country is not a far left-leaning congressional district, and there’s pockets of super conservative districts, but it’s the person that has the broadest appeal is the one that’s probably going to rise to the top. A lot of people in my own party and the media thought that Donald Trump didn’t have that broad appeal, but those were all people who just didn’t understand what the American people were thinking.”
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Though Gallego hasn’t generated the same buzz as some 2028 hopefuls, Jon Reinish, a prominent Democratic strategist based in New York, described him as one of several younger leaders stepping forward as the party searches for a new direction.
“Even though he’s been in Congress, now he’s in the Senate, he does not come across like a Washington creature at all. And I think that he has real authenticity, energy, and he’s very relatable,” Reinish said. “He does not come across as a stuffed shirt.”