PHOENIX (AP) – Democrat Ruben Gallego held his first public event of his U.S. Senate campaign Saturday, taking aim at independent Kirsten Sinema and pitching his candidacy with a patriotic appeal to the American dream.
The fifth-term congressman recounts his journey from a poor family in Chicago to cleaning toilets for a Harvard student and his grueling combat deployment as a member of the U.S. Marine Corps in Iraq.
“I knew if I worked hard and kept my nose clean, this Latino kid would make it in America. And I did,” Gallego told hundreds of supporters in Grant Park, a center for Latino political organizing in central Phoenix.
Gallego kicked off the campaign with a video posted to social media on Monday and a national media tour before returning to Arizona. In addition to his march in Phoenix on Saturday, he has held similar shows in Tucson and Casa Grande, and plans to stop in Flagstaff, the Navajo Nation and the White Mountain Apache Tribe on Sunday.
Gallego is facing the toughest campaign of his political career. In the year After winning a tough primary in a heavily Democratic congressional district in 2014, he has never faced serious opposition. Now he has to advertise to voters outside of the Phoenix district.
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In many ways, he is “the product of that American dream,” citing his military service and contrasting biography. But he pointed to the death of Tyre Nichols by five Memphis police officers as evidence that there is more work to be done.
“The American dream should include people like Tyree Nichols,” Gallego said. “It should include black men living fearlessly and being able to live, period. They deserve the American dream.”
Sinema was elected as a Democrat in 2018 but left the party late last year to register as an independent after years of growing estrangement from the party. She has not said whether she will run for re-election.
“Kirsten’s problem is not that she left the Democratic Party,” Gallego said. The problem is she left Arizona.” He said.
Sinema has not commented directly on Gallego’s entry into the race, but she touted the bipartisan deals she helped negotiate on Twitter last week and hinted that campaigns could be waiting.
“Arizona just had a terrible election season – I think we could all use a break.” He wrote cinema. “As I’ve done with infrastructure, tribal water security, drought relief, LGBTQ+ rights, CHIPS and more, I’m delivering on my promises to deliver real results for our state.”
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