As part of an announcement from this past Monday, Arizona Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego explained that he will be making a run for a seat in the U.S> Senate for 2024, attempting to take over the seat of incumbent Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.
Gallego’s campaign adds to what seems to be a highly competitive three-way race for the general election in the wake of Sinema switching her party affiliation this past December.
“Growing up poor, all I had was the American dream. It kept me going: as a kid sleeping on the floor, a student scrubbing toilets, a Marine losing brothers in Iraq,” explained Gallego in a social media post containing a campaign launch video.
Growing up poor, all I had was the American dream. It kept me going: as a kid sleeping on the floor, a student scrubbing toilets, a Marine losing brothers in Iraq.
Today, too many Arizonans see their dream slipping away. I’m running for the U.S. Senate to win it back for you! pic.twitter.com/ofUvUYRcTP
— Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) January 23, 2023
“Today, too many Arizonans see their dream slipping away,” expressed Gallego. “I’m running for the U.S. Senate to win it back for you!”
The congressman’s leap out to join a Senate election will most likely be seen as part of a large field of candidates attempting to battle it out for the seat throughout the primary election. The Republican contenders thought to potentially run include Blake Masters, who lost in his 2022 Senate run against incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly, and Kari Lake, who lost in a run for governor in 2022.
A number of other Gop candidates are also expected to take part in a potential Arizona Senate bid for 2024. Among their ranks is U.S. Reps. Andy Biggs, Juan Ciscomani, Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, 2022 gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson, and Arizona GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward.
One early poll which put Lake, Gallego, and Sinema in a mock three-way race for the general elections showed Lake at 36%, Gallego at 32%, and Sinema at just 14%. Roughly one in six voters remained undecided, as expressed by the January 11th survey from Blueprint Polling.
The poll also highlighted that Sinema polls are quite low across the Hispanic voters from the State.
“Sinema gets very little support from Hispanic voters, garnering 3% of their vote (Gallego leads Lake 41%-39% with this group), while Sinema gets the support of 17% of white Arizonans. Notably, Gallego does better with women by about 4% than with men, and Sinema enjoys a similar positive differential with men,” stated Blueprint Polling.
Sinema was often found to be at harsh odds with those in her own Democratic Party for not always blindly following the agenda handed down by Old Uncle Joe. Most recently, the senator took part in the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this month, at which she issued statements against the border policies of the Biden administration.
“The key is to create a system where we get to choose as a nation who we will invite into the country and who we will not. Right now, because our immigration security system is completely broken, we are not choosing who gets to come and who doesn’t. The cartels are choosing,” she concluded. “And that is not sustainable for our country.”
