Eileen Higgins became the first Democratic mayor<\/a> to be elected in nearly 30 years.<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019re going to places where there\u2019s big Latino populations,\u201d Gallego told The Associated Press in Miami. \u201cObviously, they swung a little too much in our opinion toward Trump last time, and we wanna talk to Democrats and we wanna talk to Latinos, we wanna talk to candidates about how to get that population back into our corner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gallego himself outperformed Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, when he won a Senate seat in Arizona by more than 2 points while Trump carried the state by nearly 6 points. And, he gives the Republican president credit for his border security measures and, at times, praises Trump\u2019s blunt style for not overthinking economic proposals when crafting his populist messaging with ideas such as \u201cno tax on tips.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to be identified as someone who\u2019s pro-working class,\u201d Gallego said at a recent event.<\/p>\n
How affordability is personal<\/p>\n
Gallego grew up in poverty in Chicago\u2019s Little Village, a predominantly Mexican neighborhood on the city\u2019s southwest side. He was raised by a single mother after his father left the family and was imprisoned for dealing drugs. Gallego worked multiple jobs to help pay the bills while still in high school. He was accepted to Harvard University, joined the Marines and fought in Iraq with a unit that sustained heavy casualties.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of the Democrats are now talking about affordability, affordability, affordability,\u201d said Jesse Lehrich, a Democratic strategist. \u201cBut how many of those actually know what it feels like to not know where the next rent check is going to come from? Or not know how they\u2019re going to pay for groceries this week?\u201d<\/p>\n
Lehrich, who is closely tracking the 2028 contenders\u2019 travels and media appearances, said there are not very many top-tier Democrats who sound like regular people, adding that, in contrast, Gallego can be \u201crough around the edges.\u201d<\/p>\n
The senator, who previously served in the U.S. House, likes boasting that he did not listen to the Washington establishment when he decided to host watch parties for boxing matches and organized a rodeo and a low rider car show, dismissing concerns that it would be perceived as condescending to Hispanic supporters.<\/p>\n
He does not come across as polished as others like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro or former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, but Lehrich says that may work in Gallego\u2019s favor because people are craving rawness.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe kind of feels perfect for the moment,\u201d Lehrich said.<\/p>\n
A Latino on the GOP side<\/p>\n
Some strategists and commentators say the Democratic Party has not done a good job at elevating Hispanic candidates at a national level. They worry Republicans are propping up another former Latino senator, now Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who ran for president in 2016 and is often mentioned by Trump when talking about 2028.<\/p>\n
Xochitl Hinojosa, a political commentator, said she sees Gallego\u2019s strength not only in appealing to Latino voters, but also in the broader electorate in battleground areas, emphasizing how hard it is for a candidate to pull himself over the finish line when the presidential candidate does not do it in that state.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think him winning a very tough seat has catapulted him to the top,\u201d Hinojosa said. \u201cDemocrats need to think through how we need to think about Latinos if Republicans have a Latino on the ticket and Democrats don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about a possible 2028 presidential bid, Gallego indicated it was too early to say.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy calculation is I have three kids. And I have six years in the Senate,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to focus on that, and we\u2019re here to help Democrats all across the country, and we\u2019ll see what happens in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a warm Sunday morning in Miami, Sen. Ruben Gallego stepped out of a car and approached parishioners…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[8131,4522,123,125,124],"class_list":{"0":"post-83967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-democrats","9":"tag-latinos","10":"tag-miami","11":"tag-miami-headlines","12":"tag-miami-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Gallego\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AP25347774786882.jpg\")
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