Gallego pushes to expand Dems' tent with eye on 2028
Freshman Sen. Ruben Gallego is already making moves to appeal to moderates and boost his national profile barely five months after winning his seat.
Why it matters: Gallego (D-Ariz.) — like a growing number of Senate Democrats — is positioning himself for a possible 2028 presidential run as his party looks to build a fresh bench after their devastating loss in November.
Gallego criticized the Democratic Party last month for "kicking people out of the tent" ahead of the 2024 election.
"What happened the last election is that we got so pure, and we kept so pure that we started kicking people out of the tent," he said at a town hall in a Philadelphia-area swing district that Trump narrowly flipped.
"It ends up there aren't enough people in the tent to win elections," he added.
Zoom in: Gallego also released an immigration reform plan that pairs liberal priorities such as pathways to citizenship with conservative principles like increased border security funding.
He had one of the best-ever fundraising debuts for a Senate Democrat, pulling in more than $1 million in his first quarter.
Axios has learned that Gallego — who kept his seat in the Democrats' column despite Trump's victory in Arizona — is planning additional stops in key battlegrounds over the coming months.
The big picture: There are signs that Gallego's appeals to moderates and conservatives are starting to make a difference for him back home.
Gallego's 50% statewide approval rating in May is higher than Trump's and Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs', according to a recent poll by Noble Predictive Insights, a Phoenix-based nonpartisan polling firm.
Gallego also doubled his overall favorability with Republican voters, with 37% of GOP voters viewing him favorably. His net favorability is higher than that of Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Az.), according to the survey.
What they're saying: " Senator Gallego shows up, listens and delivers. Voters know he is fighting for them, and this has helped him build strong, bipartisan support across Arizona," Gallego's chief of staff Raphael Chavez-Fernandez told Axios.
One senior GOP operative said Gallego is the type of Democrat who appeals to the swing voters that both parties fight over at each election.
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