Gallego Reportedly Prepping Announcement for Senate Bid

WASHINGTON — Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., a longtime critic of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., will reportedly announce the start of his bid to oust her on Monday.

Gallego, the chair of BOLD PAC, the political arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, plans to make the announcement via a video in English and Spanish.

He is expected to follow his announcement with a national media tour to promote his candidacy.

The news was first reported by Newsweek and has since been picked up by other media outlets.

The Well News has reached out to his office seeking at least to confirm that some kind of announcement is pending.

Gallego made no secret of his unhappiness with Sinema’s approach to politics and party, and Democrats had expected a bruising — and costly — primary between the two in 2024.

Then, in December, Sinema announced she was leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent, throwing the race into a state of unanticipated uncertainty. It’s not clear, for instance, whether other Democrats will now jump into the race to challenge Gallego.

Then there’s Sinema herself. Though she reportedly filed to be a candidate for reelection in 2024, she has yet to formally announce that she’s in the race.

On the Republican side, former TV anchor Kari Lake is said to be considering a run for the Senate, but she’s also considered something close to damaged goods because of her refusal to concede her election loss in the Arizona gubernatorial contest to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in November. 

Lake also mounted legal challenges to the results based on unproven claims that misconduct from election workers and voter disenfranchisement cost her votes, but they were dismissed in court.

In early January, Politico reported Gallego had hired several alumni of key 2022 Senate campaigns, including Danny Carroll and Tim Tagaris, who worked on Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly’s successful Arizona bid, and New Deal Strategies’s Rebecca Katz, who worked on Democratic Sen. John Fetterman’s win in Pennsylvania.

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