‘The Interview’: Senator Ruben Gallego on the Democrats’ Problem

Magazine|Senator Ruben Gallego on the Democrats’ Problem: ‘We’re Always Afraid’

There has been an onslaught of political news over the past few weeks as President Trump and his billionaire backer Elon Musk try to remake America’s government. From dismantling federal agencies to firing federal workers, they have been testing the legal system and the Constitution. They have also been testing Democrats, who are struggling to figure out how to respond.

It’s a real moment of soul searching for the Democratic Party, to say the least. It must not only devise a strategy to oppose Trump’s agenda, but also win back the voters who moved toward him in the election. Over the next month, I’ll be having a series of conversations with influential Democrats to understand their internal debates about the way forward. My first is with Arizona’s junior senator, Ruben Gallego. Gallego’s win over Kari Lake was one of the few bright spots for Democrats in November. A former member of the House, Gallego won in a tight race by outperforming Kamala Harris among key demographics that Democrats have struggled with, especially men and Latinos.

Gallego is the son of parents who immigrated from Colombia and Mexico and was raised by his single mother. He grew up poor, went to Harvard, became a Marine, fought in Iraq and ultimately ended up in politics, where, he says, his story of overcoming adversity and class transition helped him connect with voters. He has a lot of advice and criticism for Democrats right now, as I discovered when I sat down with him earlier this week in Washington.

I almost don’t know where to start, because so much has happened in such a short amount of time. You’re a first-term senator, but you were in the House during the first Trump administration. Does this time feel different? It does. A lot of what you see Trump doing now is what he tried the first time around. But this time, we don’t have Republican allies. We’re basically fighting on our own.

Do you see a shift in how seriously the party is taking this moment? I do think that the party, at least talking to my colleagues, are starting to see that this is an existential threat if they keep going down this road. If we can’t rely on the judiciary to be part of those checks and balances, then what is left? What I’m seeing is a lot of people that are just kind of frozen. It’s something that happens when situations come out of the norm. People want to make something that’s not normal, normal, because if you actually have to accept the reality, it gets very, very scary.