It’s Official: Ruben Gallego Is Taking on Kyrsten Sinema

He announced his candidacy with a subtle jab at the Arizona senator.

Gage Skidmore/Zuma

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s decision last month to leave the Democratic Party was, in no small part, an attempt at political self-preservation. The Green Party-candidate-turned-independent-turned-Democrat-turned-independent, who has angered Democrats in her home state—and pretty much everywhere—by opposing majority-rule in the Senate, was facing a likely primary challenge from at least one, and possibly several big-name elected officials. On the day she announced her switch, Rep. Greg Stanton, the former mayor of Phoenix, shared a poll in which he led Sinema in a head-to-head contest by nearly 40 points. 

Stanton ultimately passed on the race, but on Monday, Sinema got her first bona fide Democratic challenger: five-term Rep. Ruben Gallego.

This is, really, everything you’d expect these days from a splashy campaign rollout video, an important part of an aspiring candidate’s list-building and fundraising program. In accordance with Federal Election Commission requirements, there’s a shot where Gallego does a voiceover while we watch Gallego looking thoughtful behind the wheel of a car. We even, in a slightly meta twist, get a glimpse of an announcement before the announcement, in which Gallego, a Marine, first informs a room of veterans that he’s entering the race. 

Sinema’s name is only mentioned once, but the video previews an argument that’s likely to be at the forefront of the Democrats’ general-election campaign: Sinema, who saved private equity’s favorite tax break in 2021 and defended the filibuster at Davos just last week, isn’t listening to regular people. “The rich and the powerful—they don’t need more advocates,” Gallego says in the video. “If you’re more likely to be meeting with the powerful than the powerless, you’re doing this job incorrectly.” Gallego, a progressive, isn’t leading with any specific policy pledges, nearly two years ahead of the election. But like the Arizona Democratic Party itself, he’s signaling his dissatisfaction with the corporatist lean of the incumbent he once backed.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate