NEW: Dem Senator Eyes Potential 2028 Presidential Run
Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) has stated that he is considering a bid for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 2028.
The first-term senator made the comments while speaking with NBC News on Sunday. Gallego, a Marine Corps veteran and Harvard University graduate, indicated that he and other Democrats who won in states carried by President Donald Trump in 2024 must evaluate a potential White House run.
“Obviously, like any other elected official, especially ones that won red states in 2024, we have to look at it,” he said. Gallego emphasized the importance of regaining support among Latino voters, stating that the Democratic Party nominee in 2028 would need to secure at least 62 percent of that vote.
“No matter who runs, even if it’s not me, the candidate that wins in 2028 is going to have to get the Latino vote back to at least 62 percent,” he said. “That is the ‘pass go’ line, collect $200 on the Monopoly board. We didn’t hit that in 2024 and that’s why we find ourselves in this situation.”
According to exit poll data compiled by NBC News, former Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly won the Latino vote in the 2024 presidential election, securing 51 percent of the vote to 46 percent for President Trump. This represented a sharp decline from former President Joe Biden’s margin in 2020, however, when he received 65 percent of the vote compared to just 32 percent for President Trump.
Then U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) speaks with supporters of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a campaign rally at the Intramural Fields at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona on November 2, 2016
Photo: Gage Skidmore
When pressed for specifics on a potential White House bid, Gallego stated that he would have to discuss any final decision with his family. “I have three kids, for now. We’re a young family. We might want to have more,” he said, adding that he would first gauge his electoral prospects when compared with other potential candidates.
“I have to look at it to make sure that I’m actually going to be good at it,” the senator continued.. “If someone else can win this, then there’s no reason for me to be egotistical about this.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Gallego touched on immigration policy and diverged from the “abolish ICE” platform advanced by a number of Democrats.
“If you talk to working-class Latinos, we’re very, unfortunately, we have too much experience with immigration,” the senator said. “We know there needs to be an immigration force that deports bad people. We want bad people out. We want bad people stopped from getting in illegally.”
Gallego also called for reforms to federal immigration policy. “We need to right-size it. We need to pen it in to make sure that it’s not being abusive,” he added. “But this idea that there’s not going to be an immigration enforcement mechanism this country is ridiculous, because that’s never going to happen.”