Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego to run for Arizona Senate seat held by Kyrsten Sinema
YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - Democratic U.S. Representative Ruben Gallego from Phoenix, announcing Monday he will challenge Independent U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema in 2024, becoming the first candidate to jump into the race and setting up a potential three-way contest.
When speaking with Ruben Gallego, he said he wants to fight for "normal people" struggling to make ends meet and losing faith in politicians.
U.S. Representative Ruben Gallego, running for Senate, launched his campaign video Monday morning.
What I was talking about is really about the American dream and there’s just so many people right now that have a sense of despair about what their future looks like and I believe these people need someone fighting for the in Washington D.C.," Gallego said.
The 43-year-old Military Veteran, first elected to Congress in 2014, made no secret of his interest in challenging Kyrsten Sinema.
"I think Kyrsten Sinema doesn’t have any pathway to win whether I’m in or not. She has alienated a lot of Arizonians, lost the trust of Arizonians," Gallego added.
Gallego says he and Sinema both come from "modest to poor means" but he believes they taken different paths in congress.
Sinema leaving the Democratic party in December, registering as an Independent.
If Gallego does take the senate seat, he says he wants to bring Yuma the resources it needs.
"So we’re going to try to bring the resources down to yuma county to because they are dealing with a major influx of refugees and taxpayers of the county should not be on the hook to deal with this," Gallego expressed, saying he’s visited Yuma several times and plans to come again in the near future.
"And I think at the end of the day when people hear from me, hear my message, hear my background, they’re going to want to trust," Gallego added.
At this time, Sinema has not said whether she plans to run for a second term.
We did reach out to Sinema to get her reaction on Gallego entering the race, but she declined to comment.
And no Republican has entered the race for the senate seat.
