Ruben Gallego had the travel schedule of a presidential candidate. Then he started getting scrutinized like one.
Gallego, D-Arizona, has spent the last six months weathering back-to-back scandals after his ex-best friend, former Rep. Eric Swalwell, was accused of sexual misconduct by four women.
Gallego was not implicated in the career-ending allegations against Swalwell, D-California, but they set off a torrent of negative press coverage and raised enough questions about Gallego's judgment that he put his presidential campaign-style travel on ice this summer.
“That impacted his campaign significantly and certainly set him back on his heels in any kind of presidential race,” Arizona Democratic strategist David Waid said.
Gallego used to court the
limelight — fueling speculation about his 2028 intentions — with visits to places such as battleground Pennsylvania and first-in-the-nation primary state New Hampshire in 2025, but he backed off his effort to generate buzz around a potential presidential bid in July and August.
He traded last summer’s tour around the Iowa State Fair, a perennial stop for White House aspirants, for a family visit to the Coconino County Fairgrounds in Flagstaff. At the same time, he waited for things to cool off.
That’s beginning to change. Gallego made September visits to Georgia, Nevada and Texas, and one ally said he may go back on the road this fall to stump for Democrats running in Republican-held congressional districts.
The fall campaign swing would serve as a test of whether Gallego can overcome the baggage of his personal life if he enters a crowded presidential primary field in 2028.
“Ruben Gallego is the first 2028 candidate who's been fully vetted. All of these folks will go through what Ruben went through, as far as everybody digging into every part of his past,” Gallego adviser Chuck Rocha said. “Two good things come out of that: One is nobody found anything of any substance. And two, it's over.”
Gallego sought the spotlight
Last year, it seemed like the sky was the limit for Gallego, a 46-year-old Marine Corps veteran who convinced enough Trump voters to split their tickets that he defeated Republican Kari Lake in 2024, the same year President Donald Trump carried Arizona.
He invited the national spotlight by being candid about his presidential ambitions.
“Has it ever crossed my mind? (Expletive) of course,” Gallego told NBC News ahead of a trip to Pennsylvania in May 2025.
He flipped pork burgers in Iowa and signed wooden eggs over breakfast with New Hampshire’s political class, pitching himself as the man who can bring working-class Latino voters back to the Democratic Party.
That attention turned to scrutiny this spring, when Gallego’s close friend was accused of sexual misconduct.
Gallego initially defended Swalwell against rumors of wrongdoing in April, but changed his position after a former Swalwell staffer told the San Francisco Chronicle that Swalwell sexually assaulted her. Three more women came forward to accuse Swalwell of assault and misconduct.
In an emotional — and at times, contradictory — press conference, Gallego told reporters in Washington that he had been duped by his close friend. Gallego knew Swalwell was “flirty” and had heard rumors, but never thought he was capable of sexual assault.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Florida, quickly accused Gallego of sexual misconduct, prompting a Senate Ethics Committee investigation which found no wrongdoing. Internet investigators began scraping Gallego's online history in an unsuccessful effort to place him in a video of Swalwell pulling a woman onto a hotel bed.
There was nothing to find because Gallego was in North Carolina when the Swalwell video was taped, Gallego spokesperson Jacques Petit said. The video's metadata showed it was recorded in Las Vegas on July 13, 2021, according to Newsweek.
Petit provided an itinerary to corroborate Gallego's July 11-13 congressional delegation trip to Fort Bragg.
“Republicans are pushing a guilt-by-association story because there’s nothing else there. His instinct is to take things head-on, and that’s part of why voters like him. It may have kept the story in the news a little longer, but it doesn’t change anything,” said DJ Quinlan, an Arizona political strategist and longtime friend of Gallego.
The negative attention also created a new opportunity to talk about Gallego’s past issues, like his divorce from Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego when she was nearly nine months pregnant with their child, and an accusation from a Republican aide who claimed Gallego rubbed his earwax on her in 2017.
Along the way, Gallego brought on reinforcements to his political shop. He hired communications aide Andrew Bates, best known for being former President Joe Biden’s top defender when he was being forced out of the 2024 presidential race.To one Gallego donor, it was another example of the senator’s bad judgment – and grounds for a campaign refund.
“I gave him money. I thought he had potential. I thought he was a talent,” said Michael LaRosa, a former aide to First Lady Jill Biden who now works at Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm with ties to top Trump allies. “He's going to cost way more than he's worth.”
Gallego returned LaRosa’s $1,000, records show.
The unflattering news kept coming. Gallego had used political dollars to pay for childcare and family excursions to the Super Bowl, Disneyland, Miami and other luxe destinations, POLITICO reported.
Candidates are allowed to spend political dollars on childcare, and the trend is on the rise among lawmakers. But the story inspired the Justice Department to open an investigation into Gallego's potential misuse of political funds. His office bashed it as politically motivated.
A few weeks later, Gallego was forced to rescind his endorsement of Maine Democrat Graham Platner when the Senate hopeful was accused of rape and dropped out of the race.
Even Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, took the opportunity to put some daylight between them on the topic of Swalwell and Platner.
"I didn't endorse either of them,” Kelly, who is laying the groundwork for his own presidential campaign, told The Arizona Republic in July. “This job requires judgment.”
Gallego was hardly alone in backing Platner. Progressive lawmakers such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, also pulled their endorsements. But Gallego was among the earliest senators to embrace Platner, who even then was facing criticism for his Nazi-like tattoo and allegations of antisemitism and homophobia. In a March 2 social media message, Gallego praised Platner as a Marine who "reflects the grit and independence that defines Maine, and that’s exactly why I’m proud to endorse him."
It was another strike against an already beleaguered freshman senator.
Then whispers about Gallego’s sex life landed on the front page of the New York Post.
Gallego slept with two House staffers for Texas lawmakers when he was a single congressman, according to the anonymously sourced report.
"I'm not going to engage in gossip about people I dated eight years ago," Gallego said on KTAR, emphasizing that he did not have a romantic relationship with anyone who worked for him.
Gallego stepped back to weather political storm
While many politicians would go dark during a controversy, Gallego took a different approach and confronted the issues directly.
He denounced Swalwell, walked back his Platner endorsement and defended spending campaign cash on donor trips and babysitters as part of the job, especially for a lawmaker who doesn't come from wealth.
“Senator Gallego has been clear about what he believes, his values, and how he balances being a dad while serving in the Senate — he is one of the most vetted Democratic politicians,” Petit said in a written statement. “He has done the work to fight for Arizonans and to help elect Democratic majorities this November. That’s his concern, and he remains committed to fulfilling those duties."
Gallego also tried to make amends by donating $19,000 in campaign funds tied to Swalwell to the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual & Domestic Violence.
“A donation to us shouldn't alleviate any concerns that voters already had. That all being said, we all individually know someone who has sexually assaulted another person,” the coalition's CEO Jenna Panas said. “Sen. Gallego recognizing that he made an error in judgment is something, I think, to be commended, and I hope he learns from that.”
The more Gallego commented on the controversies, the longer the story lasted. He did a local radio interview in July that was so consumed by his Swalwell ties and dating history that Gallego compared the 21-minute grilling to a body cavity search.
Around that time, Gallego cut down on his political travel to states that invite presidential speculation.
“He did have to take a step back, and he did have to deal with it,” Rocha said. “Nothing of any substance was ever proven, so that he's weathered that storm.”
As Gallego heads back onto the campaign trail, there are signals that candidates are still eager to associate with his political brand.
Texas Democrats Bobby Pulido and Rep. Vicente Gonzalez welcomed Gallego at their campaign events earlier this month.
Gallego may also stump with other congressional candidates, Rocha said. The campaign stops have not been confirmed, but Rocha pointed to potential appearances with JoAnna Mendoza, who is running for a pivotal Southern Arizona swing district seat, Manny Rutinel in the Denver area and Randy Villegas, who is running in California’s Central Valley.
“Nobody enters these contests unscathed,” said Joe Caiazzo, the New Hampshire state director for Bernie Sanders’ 2020 campaign. “The electorate is looking for something new, and there's a real opportunity for candidates to come onto the scene.”
If Gallego is waiting for voters to forget about the past six months, he will need to hold out a little longer.
James Sieveke, a 78-year-old Democratic voter from Tucson, was sizing up the potential presidential primary field while he waited to see Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg at the Pima County Fairgrounds on a recent Saturday night in September.
When he got to Gallego, Sieveke’s mind went straight to women.
“He's got a little bit of baggage there,” Sieveke said. “I don't think he's strong enough.”
Stephanie Murray covers national politics and the Trump administration for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. She co-hosts “The Gaggle,” The Republic’s weekly politics podcast. Reach her at stephanie.murray@usatodayco.com, on X and TikTok @stephanie_murr and on Instagram @stephaniemurray.news.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Is Ruben Gallego still viable for president in 2028 despite baggage?
