Laura Gersony [9/17/25] 

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WASHINGTON ― Sen. Ruben Gallego is calling on his party to shift its focus toward consumer protection after sweeping Democratic losses in 2024.

That has sparked interest from a group of Democratic advocates skeptical of Wall Street and big business, an ascendant faction as the party goes back to the drawing board on economic policy.

Gallego, D-Arizona, is flirting with the party’s economic populist wing as he tests the waters for a presidential bid in 2028.

It is a delicate courtship. Gallego has championed top issues from the crowd of Wall Street skeptics, joining calls to block certain mergers and crack down on alleged price-fixing by big companies. But he has bucked other causes, backing cryptocurrency and stopping short of the fiercest criticisms of the very wealthy.

The senator appeared Sept. 16 at an “anti-monopoly” gathering in D.C., continuing the big-tent political approach he developed to win statewide in conservative-leaning Arizona.

He fused left-populist economic positions with centrist rhetorical flair.

Modern-day monopolitists aren’t people wearing “top hats” or “twirling their mustaches,” Gallego told the crowd of mostly advocates, lobbyists and researchers in Washington, D.C. It’s “the guy who’s drinking the matcha tea,” he said, or going to “yoga classes.”

“We, Congress, have a right to regulate commerce, and I think this is one of those areas where we certainly should.”

Gallego threads needle on economic reforms

Gallego became a nationally watched figure during last year’s elections, when he was one of few in the party to win election to the Senate. He defeated his GOP rival Kari Lake, the two-time Republican candidate and polarizing figure best known for baselessly disputing Republicans’ recent election losses in Arizona.

Gallego, a former member of the House Progressive Caucus, defeated Lake largely by playing up his military background and rise from humble roots and casting himself as a fighter who understood kitchen-table economics in an era of uncomfortable inflation.

Since then, Gallego has threaded the needle between rival factions within the Democratic Party. On economics he has embraced some reforms that would shift power toward consumers, defending them using rhetoric that leans into middle-of-the-road narratives of personal responsibility.

“We’re making it more difficult for people to be financially responsible,” Gallego said. “We’re allowing traps to continue, essentially, to increase corporate profit for that quarter.”

He has introduced a bill that would enshrine a Biden-era “click to cancel” rule, a signature issue for the consumer protection crowd, which would require companies to disclose more clearly and make it easier for consumers to get out of subscription services.

Gallego has backed antitrust lawsuits against big companies, such as those accused of using property management software to hike rent prices in Arizona and other states.

Having big developers in Arizona’s housing market, “to some degree, is actually good because it can build (at) scale very fast,” he told the crowd. But the price-fixing allegations “got me really, really mad.”

When Delta Airlines announced a plan to use artificial intelligence to set prices earlier this year, Gallego pounced: He and other senators accused the firm of “surveillance pricing” that would hike costs for people more desperate to get tickets, such as those who have recently lost a loved one.

“This was predatory,” Gallego said.

Other stances have made him more controversial among the Democrats’ anti-monopoly ranks.

Gallego is a staunch advocate of cryptocurrency, whose lobby spent $10 million in support of his 2024 Senate bid. After winning election, he co-hosted a fundraiser attended by the venture capitalist Marc Andreesson, a giant in the crypto world and a Trump ally. Gallego defended the decision, saying Democrats have lost voters by being too “pure.”

Gallego has praised the “Abundance” wing of the party, named for a widely acclaimed book by two liberal intellectuals who argue Democrats should prioritize deregulation over trustbusting.

The moderator for the gathering, Nidhi Hegde, executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project, asked Gallego how Democrats should break through to voters.

“I think anything that empowers the consumer, that everyday person, is going to be a very popular message,” Gallego said.

Gallego picks middle path on ‘billionaire’ talk

Gallego has squared the circle by training his focus on consumers rather than big businesses. He’s emphasized his own background rising from poverty in the Chicago area, saying a “poor person mentality” drove his interest in antitrust issues.

“Middle class is now a culture, it’s not an actual economic situation,” he said.

Some in the party’s leftmost flank have declared that billionaires should not exist. Gallego thinks Democrats have turned away voters by stigmatizing wealth-building, telling The Arizona Republic “people don’t hate billionaires.”

“They hate billionaires that are screwing them,” he said.