Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego are on a presidential campaign collision course.
Both of Arizona’s Democratic senators are weighing presidential bids in 2028, hoping their ability to win in a right-leaning border state will open up a path to the White House. The dynamic already is setting them up to compete for endorsements, donors and, most importantly, votes.
“We've had some very awkward conversations on five-hour flights about this. No, no, just kidding,” Gallego told The Arizona Republic in an exclusive interview. “No, no. We haven't, actually."
The Senate colleagues have not spoken about their presidential ambitions, Gallego said Oct. 8.
He doesn’t expect they will anytime soon.
“We're probably gonna just like, dance around it forever. Until, you
know, one of us blinks first. And then we'll have a conversation,” Gallego said. “Come on, politicians are passive-aggressive. You know how that's gonna end up.”
Kelly and Gallego have been here before. Gallego was gearing up for a 2020 Senate bid until Kelly got in the race. Gallego passed to avoid a “spirited and nasty primary,” he told The Republic in 2019.
This cycle, though, Gallego doesn’t seem as deterred by the potentially combustible dynamic — or the nearly $25 million Kelly reported in his campaign bank account at the end of June.
Both lawmakers are laying the groundwork to join what’s likely to be a jam-packed presidential primary field.
They’re hardly alone.
Big-name Democrats such as former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker are among the possible candidates.
There could be multiple Californians in the race, too. Democrats Rep. Ro Khanna, former Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Gavin Newsom hail from the same state and are considered could-be candidates, though Newsom drew a line and said he won’t run if Harris does.
Still, it’s unusual for two senators from the same state to seek the presidential nomination. In fact, it hasn’t been done in nearly six decades, according to presidential historian Douglas Brinkley.
Two Minnesotans — Vice President and former Sen. Hubert Humphrey and sitting Sen. Eugene McCarthy — ran for the Democratic nomination in 1968. The race didn’t exactly end on great terms: McCarthy refused to endorse Humphrey at the Democratic National Convention and only begrudgingly voted for him over Republican Richard Nixon in November.
So far, Kelly and Gallego have given each other a wide berth. In fact, Kelly declined to comment for this story.
But they can’t avoid each other forever, or even for very much longer.
“It's in everybody's interest to get along,” said state Rep. Sean Bagniewski, an Iowa lawmaker who Kelly and Gallego are both courting. Iowa is no longer Democrats' first-in-the-nation caucus state, but it's still a popular stop for White House aspirants.
Bagniewski said he has known Gallego for almost a decade, since he came to Iowa to stump for Democrats in 2018. More recently, Bagniewski showed Kelly around downtown Des Moines in August.
Kelly returned the favor and invited Bagniewski to Tucson for a young leaders meetup. The former Polk County Democrats chair will fly into Arizona this week to attend.
The Arizona White House rivals are even bumping into each other on policy ideas.
Gallego spoke to The Republic a day after he released a new, sweeping economic proposal. The first-term senator proposed raising the minimum wage to $20, making companies pay double for overtime and putting new restrictions on data centers and artificial intelligence firms.
Gallego’s 32-plan middle class jobs plan was reminiscent of a presidential campaign platform, full of pictures and biographical information about Arizona’s junior senator.
He released the plan two weeks after Kelly unveiled his own pitch to protect workers from AI upheaval. Both lawmakers floated expanding unemployment to 26 weeks and making states cover 75% of missed wages.
Gallego said he’s still deciding whether to seek the White House in 2028, noting that he has a young family to consider. As for Kelly, Gallego said there’s room for both Arizona senators in the presidential primary field.
“There's always room for more people to do anything,” Gallego said. “If I do anything, it's because I think it's the best first, for my family, and two, the best thing I can do for my country.”
Kelly has amped up travel to presidentially relevant states and spoken openly about considering a campaign, while Gallego’s presidential ambitions stalled for several months.
Gallego’s penchant for spending campaign cash on childcare and luxury trips to donor retreats with his family in tow landed his leadership PAC a Justice Department subpoena, Politico reported. Gallego’s office has brushed off the DOJ probe as politically motivated.
Plus, Gallego has been burdened by his close friendship with disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-California. Gallego initially defended Swalwell when rumors were swirling about his ex-best friend, then he denounced Swalwell after multiple women accused the California Democrat of sexual misconduct.
The typically tight-lipped Kelly used his colleague's missteps as an opportunity to draw a contrast in July. The resulting back-and-forth was an early glimpse into what Kelly and Gallego could sound like as adversaries in 2028.
Kelly knocked Gallego’s judgment for endorsing Swalwell and Graham Platner, the Maine Democrat with a Nazi-like tattoo who was forced out of a pivotal Senate race after a woman accused him of rape.
“I didn't endorse either of them,” Kelly said. “This job requires judgment.”
Gallego adviser Chuck Rocha hit right back when he caught wind of what Kelly had said. In Rocha’s view, Americans are hungry for someone who speaks their mind, even if that means “being too quick here or there.”
“What Mark Kelly's talking about is the status quo," Rocha said. “And I can promise you people are getting fed up with that (expletive).”
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: Kelly, Gallego headed for presidential campaign collision | Exclusive
