Ruben Gallego facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ruben Gallego
Official portrait, 2022
United States Senator-elect from Arizona
Assuming office January 3, 2025
Succeeding	Kyrsten Sinema
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2015
Preceded by	Ed Pastor
Constituency	7th district (2015–2023) 3rd district (2023–present)
Member of the Arizona House of Representatives
In office January 10, 2011 – March 14, 2014 Serving with Catherine Miranda
Preceded by	Cloves Campbell Jr.
Succeeded by	Norma Muñoz
Constituency	16th district (2011–2013) 27th district (2013–2014)
Personal details
Born	Ruben Marinelarena (1979-11-20) November 20, 1979 (age 45) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouses	Kate Widland ​ ​ (m. 2010; div. 2017)​ Sydney Barron ​ (m. 2021)​
Children	4
Education	Harvard University (BA)
Website
Military service
Branch/service	United States Marine Corps Marine Corps Reserve
Years of service	2002–2013
Rank	Lance Corporal
Unit	3rd Battalion, 27th Marines
Battles/wars	Iraq War

Rubén Marinelarena Gallego (/ˈruːbən ɡaɪˈɛɡoʊ/ ROO-bən-_-gy-EH-goh; born November 20, 1979) is an American politician who is a United States Senator-elect from Arizona. He has served as the U.S. representative for Arizona's 3rd congressional district since 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, Gallego was a member of the Arizona House of Representatives, where he was assistant minority leader from 2012 until he resigned to run for Congress. Gallego was first elected to Congress in 2014. His district includes most of southern, western, and downtown Phoenix, and part of Glendale, where he served four terms in the House.

Gallego served as the national chair of Eric Swalwell's 2020 presidential campaign. Considered a progressive politician, Gallego was critical of Senator Kyrsten Sinema for opposing filibuster reform and Democratic legislation. Democratic Party members and liberal organizations encouraged him to run against her, and in January 2023 he announced his candidacy for the 2024 United States Senate election in Arizona. As Sinema did not seek reelection, Gallego won the Democratic nomination unopposed and narrowly defeated the Republican nominee Kari Lake in the subsequent general election.

Early life and education

Gallego was born in Chicago, and is a second-generation American, with a Colombian mother and a Mexican father. Along with his three sisters, he was raised by a single mother. The family moved to Chicago suburb Evergreen Park, and he graduated from Evergreen Park Community High School. Gallego attended Harvard University, where he became a member of Sigma Chi fraternity, and earned a Bachelor of Arts in international relations in 2004.

Early career

Gallego in 2013

Gallego was in the Marines from 2002 to 2006. After completing training in the School of Infantry (SOI), he deployed to Iraq with Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines. Gallego served as a lance corporal. The 3/25 lost 46 marines and one Navy corpsman between January 2005 and January 2006. Gallego's best friend died during combat operations in Iraq.

In 2007, Gallego led District 7 Phoenix City Council candidate Michael Nowakowski's successful campaign before serving as Nowakowski's chief of staff. In 2009, he stepped down as chief of staff to focus on his campaign for the Arizona State House in District 16, which he won in 2010.

In 2011, The Arizona Republic named Gallego a distinguished freshman lawmaker. His first successful bill granted in-state tuition status to veterans residing in Arizona. Gallego supported the repeal of Arizona SB 1070. In 2012, Gallego was elected assistant minority leader.

Gallego founded the group Citizens for Professional Law Enforcement to recall Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio, citing Arpaio's immigration policies and his use of taxpayer money to investigate Barack Obama's citizenship. The attempt failed; Arpaio remained in office until losing reelection in 2016. Gallego worked for Strategies 360 as Director of Latino and New Media operations. He also worked for Riester, one of Arizona's largest public relations firms.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2014

Gallego speaking at a rally for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016

On February 27, 2014, Gallego announced his candidacy for Congress in Arizona's 7th congressional district. Although not required to give up his seat under Arizona's resign-to-run laws (since he was in the final year of his state House term), Gallego resigned from the Arizona House in March 2014. Mayday PAC, a super PAC seeking to reduce the role of money in politics, endorsed Gallego in 2014.

Gallego won a five-way Democratic primary—the real contest in this heavily Democratic, majority-Latino district—with 48.9% of the vote. He won the general election with 74% of the vote. He has been reelected three times, never dropping below 70% of the vote. He is the second Colombian American elected to the U.S. House, after Scott Perry.

2016

Gallego defeated Republican challenger Eve Nunez in 2016.

2018

Gallego defeated Green Party challenger Gary Swing in 2018.

2020

Gallego defeated Republican challenger Joshua Barnett in 2020.

2022

In 2022, Gallego ran in the newly redrawn Arizona District 3 and defeated Republican challenger Jeff Zink. Considered a progressive politician, Gallego, who has been very critical of U.S. senator Kyrsten Sinema, was encouraged by several progressive organizations to run against her in the 2024 election. He announced his candidacy on January 23, 2023.

Committee assignments

For the 118th Congress:

• Committee on Armed Services
  • Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations (Ranking Member)
  • Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces
• Committee on Natural Resources
  • Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs
  • Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
  • Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries

Caucus memberships

• Blue Collar Caucus
• Congressional Arts Caucus
• Congressional Hispanic Caucus
• Congressional Equality Caucus
• Congressional Progressive Caucus (formerly)
• House Baltic Caucus
• Medicare for All Caucus
• Congressional Coalition on Adoption

Political positions

Gallego during a Natural Resources Committee meeting in 2020

In November 2020, the House of Representatives passed a bill, introduced in bipartisan fashion by Gallego and Republican Markwayne Mullin, that requires the federal government to reimburse healthcare provided for Native veterans regardless of whether the healthcare was provided by, or referred by, the Indian Health Service or tribes. In May 2021, the House passed a bill Gallego sponsored, the Native VetSuccess at Tribal Colleges and Universities Pilot Program Act, that would have provided more government funding for Native American veterans. The Senate did not take up the bill.

In July 2021, it was reported that a corporate lobbying group called the U.S.–Qatar Business Council paid for a $22,000 trip to Qatar for Gallego and his wife, who is a lobbyist for the National Association of Realtors. Commentators noted that Gallego had previously criticized Senator Kyrsten Sinema for allegedly being too close to business lobbyists. Gallego opposed the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade. .....

In February 2022, Gallego called for expelling Russian university students from the United States, prompting commentators to denounce these remarks as bigoted and xenophobic. On February 9, 2023, Gallego voted against overturning the Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2022, which would allow noncitizens to vote in local elections in the District of Columbia.

Gallego speaking to a U.S. Army officer in 2017

Gallego during the
114th Congress

In the 117th United States Congress, Gallego voted in line with Joe Biden's stated position 100% of the time. In September 2023, the House passed Gallego's bill, the Native American Child Protection Act, which aims to set up the National Indian Child Resource and Family Services Center to assist and train tribes, tribal organizations and urban Indian organizations, and also aims to come up with state-tribe agreements to prevent, investigate and prosecute family violence. Gallego voted to provide Israel with support following the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

2024 U.S. Senate campaign

The logo for Gallego's Senate campaign.

On January 22, 2023, Gallego announced his candidacy for the United States Senate in 2024. The seat is currently held by Kyrsten Sinema, an independent who was first elected as a Democrat in 2018, and who has angered some members of the party due to her opposition to filibuster reform and some Democratic legislation. After Gallego entered the race, and with Sinema not polling well, she chose not to run for reelection. Gallego had raised more money than Sinema in the first two quarters of 2023.

Gallego with Barack Obama.

Gallego with Bill Clinton.

In 2022, Gallego bought a home near Capitol Hill using a special mortgage loan program for military veterans. He claimed the District of Columbia home as his primary residence although his campaign maintains that he resides in his Phoenix home. Gallego receives a homeowner rebate in Arizona that lowers the tax burdens for residents who primarily live in the state. Politico noted that Gallego "may have to explain why he declared he was primarily a resident of the nation's capital".

Gallego, who had previously embraced his progressive background as "a fierce liberal combatant", has sought to strike a moderate tone in his 2024 campaign in order to woo swing voters. He once called Donald Trump's border wall plans "stupid" and accused Trump of "scapegoating immigrants" but by 2024 was "delicately turning to the political center". The New York Times wrote, "Gallego has built a reputation as a blunt-spoken liberal who is politically in tune with young progressives and lacerates his opponents with profane social media posts." While Gallego seeks to move to the middle, Republicans in Arizona are highlighting his co-sponsorship of the Medicare for All Act, his support for ending the Senate filibuster, and his suggestion to "take a scalpel" to military spending. In 2018, Gallego rallied alongside Bernie Sanders, and in 2022 he called himself "a true progressive voice in Congress". By 2024, he no longer embraced the label "progressive". He let his membership in the Congressional Progressive Caucus lapse, which he claimed was a financial decision.

On November 9, 2024, Decision Desk HQ projected that Gallego had beaten Lake in the Senate election in Arizona.

Personal life

On August 7, 2008, Gallego changed his name from Ruben Marinelarena to Ruben Marinelarena Gallego to honor his mother, Elisa Gallego, who raised him and his three siblings on her own after his father abandoned the family in his childhood. In 2010, Gallego married Kate Widland Gallego, who was later elected mayor of Phoenix. They divorced in 2017, just before the birth of their son.

Gallego married Sydney Barron in 2021. Barron is a lobbyist for the National Association of Realtors. They have a daughter, who was born in July 2023. Gallego wrote They Called Us "Lucky": The Life and Afterlife of the Iraq War's Hardest Hit Unit, published in 2021, about his service in the Marines Third Battalion, Twenty-Fifth Marine Regiment, Lima Company, during the Iraq War.

Electoral history

2010

2012

2014

2016

2018

2020

2022

See also

In Spanish: Ruben Gallego para niños

• List of Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States Congress