Ruben Gallego: From Overcoming Adversity to Serving Arizona in the U.S. Senate
Rubén Marinelarena Gallego (born November 20, 1979) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States Senator from Arizona since 2025. His journey to the Senate is marked by overcoming adversity, military service, and a commitment to public service. Gallego's career includes serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona (2015-2025) and the Arizona House of Representatives (2011-2014).
Early Life and Education: Overcoming Challenges
Ruben Marinelarena Gallego grew up in working-class Black and Latino neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago, the son of immigrants-his mother from Colombia and his father from Mexico. He also lived with his family for a time in the Mexican state of Chihuahua-his father’s home state-during his youth. He and his three sisters were raised by their mother after their father was imprisoned for drug offenses. Growing up poor, he took any job he could find - working at a pizza joint, construction sites, and a meat-packing plant - to help support his family.
The first in his family to attend college, Marinelarena earned a spot at Harvard University, where he again worked numerous odd jobs to pay his way through school. He experienced what he has described as “culture shock” and struggled academically. He was asked to leave during his sophomore year but was told he could reapply the following year. Following his service, he later returned to Harvard, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in international relations in 2004.
Military Service: From Harvard to the Marine Corps
Ruben enlisted in the Marine Corps and deployed as an infantryman to Iraq, where his company saw some of the heaviest casualties of the war. Marinelarena remained in the Marine Reserve and was among the reservists deployed to Iraq in 2005. His unit, Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, was initially nicknamed “Lucky Lima” after not seeing any casualties for the first several months of deployment. However, Lima Company later saw some of the highest American casualties of the Iraq War.
Gallego served in the Marines from 2002 to 2006. After completing training in the School of Infantry (SOI), he was deployed to Iraq with Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines. Gallego served as a lance corporal. The 3/25 lost 46 marines and one Navy corpsman between January 2005 and January 2006.
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After returning home, Ruben’s military service motivated him to seek public office and ensure that members of the military are never again sent into harm’s way without a plan for winning the fight and caring for those who serve when they return home. He reflected on his time in Iraq and the post-traumatic stress disorder that followed his deployment in a book titled They Called Us “Lucky”: The Life and Afterlife of the Iraq War’s Hardest Hit Unit (2021; with Jim DeFelice). His military service informed his dedication to veterans’ and military affairs in his political career.
Early Political Career in Arizona
Marinelarena relocated to Arizona following his military deployment, where he joined college girlfriend Kate Widland, who was there working on John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. In Arizona Marinelarena worked first in public relations, and he got his start in politics running the election campaign of Phoenix City Council member Michael Nowakowski. He then continued in politics full-time after Nowakowski’s campaign, serving as the councilman’s chief of staff, and then the vice chair of the Arizona Democratic Party.
In 2008 Marinelarena legally changed his last name to his mother’s maiden name of Gallego, a decision he said was to honor his mother. On August 7, 2008, Gallego changed his name from Ruben Marinelarena to Ruben Marinelarena Gallego to honor his mother, Elisa Gallego, who raised him and his three siblings on her own after his father abandoned the family in his childhood.
Gallego was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 2010 and served from 2011-14, including a term as assistant minority leader (2012-14). As a state legislator, he became known for his tough stand against extreme legislation pushed by Republicans in the state legislature.
U.S. House of Representatives (2015-2025)
Ruben Gallego was first elected to the U. S. House of Representatives, serving Arizona’s 3rd congressional district, in 2014. He took office the following year and was reelected in each congressional election through 2022. In Congress Gallego advocated for causes including Indigenous rights, water resources, and veterans’ and military issues. He served on the Committee on Natural Resources and the House Armed Services Committee, where he was a member of the Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations.
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Gallego founded the group Citizens for Professional Law Enforcement to recall Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio, citing Arpaio's immigration policies and his use of taxpayer money to investigate Barack Obama's citizenship. The recall failed; Arpaio remained in office until losing reelection in 2016. Gallego worked for Strategies 360 as Director of Latino and New Media operations.Gallego won a five-way Democratic primary with 48.9% of the vote, defeating Mary Rose Wilcox, who was retiring congressman Ed Pastor's choice to succeed him and was backed by a number of progressive groups. Gallego went on to win the general election with 74.9% of the vote.
Considered a rising progressive star in the party, Gallego was encouraged by several progressive groups to run for Senate by challenging Mark Kelly in the Democratic primary. Gallego has distinguished himself as a leading voice on national security issues as the highest-ranking Latino on the Armed Services Committee.
2024 Senate Campaign
On January 22, 2023, Gallego announced his candidacy for the United States Senate in 2024. The seat was then held by Kyrsten Sinema, an independent who was first elected as a Democrat in 2018, and who angered members of the party due to her opposition to filibuster reform and some major Democratic legislation. Sinema announced that she would not seek reelection in 2024, and Gallego faced MAGA Republican Kari Lake in the election for the open seat. Among Gallego’s reasons for running for Senate included his desire to influence his core issues of veterans’ and military affairs, tribal issues, reproductive health care access, housing affordability, and Arizona’s water supply. He narrowly beat Lake to take Sinema’s seat.
Democrats and liberal organizations encouraged him to run against Sinema, and in January 2023, Gallego announced his candidacy for the 2024 United States Senate election in Arizona. Sinema did not seek reelection.
Though he had previously embraced his progressive background as "a fierce liberal combatant", he moved to the political center in his 2024 campaign to woo swing voters. He once called Donald Trump's border wall plans "stupid" and accused Trump of "scapegoating immigrants". His campaign emphasized his Marine Corps service and combat experience in Iraq, positioning him as a moderate voice on national security issues to appeal to independent voters. He distanced himself from progressive positions he had held in his House career, focusing instead on economic issues and border security.
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Political Positions
In Congress, Ruben has fought tirelessly for hardworking Arizona families, working to cut costs, support small businesses, and take care of our veterans. Because of his experience growing up paycheck to paycheck, he understands the unyielding squeeze too many Arizonans are feeling. That’s why he’s working to cut costs on everything from gas and groceries, to rent and health care costs.
The New York Times wrote, "Gallego has built a reputation as a blunt-spoken liberal who is politically in tune with young progressives and lacerates his opponents with profane social media posts." Republicans in Arizona highlighted his co-sponsorship of the Medicare for All Act, his support for ending the Senate filibuster, and his suggestion to "take a scalpel" to military spending.
In 2018, Gallego rallied alongside Bernie Sanders, and in 2022 he called himself "a true progressive voice in Congress". By 2024, he no longer embraced the label "progressive". Gallego supported stronger gun control as of 2023.
During the government shutdown of October 2025, Vice President JD Vance called for revisiting Reagan-era emergency care standards, saying that many Americans had experienced situations where "illegal aliens" unable to speak English received care before citizens in emergency rooms. After the killing of Renée Good amid Trump's mass deportation campaign, Gallego opposed abolishing ICE and compared it to defund the police.
In January 2026, after federal immigration agents fatally shot Alex Pretti during Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis, Gallego announced he would vote against the Department of Homeland Security funding bill. In an Fox News op-ed, he called Pretti's shooting "murder", writing that agents "shot over 10 times in five seconds" while Pretti was "lying on the ground, unarmed, and posed no threat".
Personal Life
Gallego and Widland were married in 2010. They were divorced in 2016, the same year that their son, Michael, was born. Kate Gallego retained her married name, and in 2019 she became the mayor of Phoenix. In 2021 Gallego married lobbyist Sydney Barron.
In 2022, Gallego bought a home near Capitol Hill using a special mortgage loan program for military veterans. He claimed the District of Columbia home as his primary residence although his campaign maintains that he resides in his Phoenix home. Gallego receives a homeowner rebate in Arizona that lowers the tax burdens for residents who primarily live in the state.
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