WASHINGTON – Today, Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) joined Jonathan Capehart for a talk entitled ‘Future of the Democratic Party’ at the 15th Annual NewDEAL Leaders Conference. The Senator emphasized meeting voters where they are, gave advice to new and prospective elected officials, and spoke about January 6.
On Democrats’ 2025 victories and how to win competitive races:
“What I saw with Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger is that they decided they’re going to win and they’re going to figure out how to get there. And it wasn’t exactly what maybe some people in our overall coalition would like, but they did it, and they focused on what the voters actually were caring about. What they were hearing about was affordability. […] And you saw the other campaigns were trying to draw them away from that, throwing different types of subjects and issues, [but] they just did not get them off their game, they stuck to it. […] They talked to voters about what voters want to talk about. That should not sound revolutionary, but unfortunately, [it] has been revolutionary among Democrats. I think we need to start going back to that. We have to want to win. We have to be willing to do what it takes to win.”
On authenticity:
“Arizona is a big state, and it’s actually quite diverse. We had a lot of people that were trying to tell me that I either had to run as a strait-laced, White suburban veteran to win that swing vote in Arizona, or run as a Latino candidate […] My contention was that Arizona is such a mixed state, and it’s so culturally aligned that I can be both. […] And I saw last cycle, a lot of campaigns because they got stuck in the political bubble, and they got stuck trying to make the political world happy versus trying to get the most important votes.”
On advice to new politicians:
“I think the most important thing you should remember is, first of all, do not have only political friends around you. On a Friday and Saturday night, [if] you’re going to dinner with always either a donor, a consultant or another politician, you’re in a bubble, and that bubble is going to get you in trouble. […] I live in South Phoenix, a very working-class area of the state. It is a Black and Latino area. It’s an aspirational area. When things were going bad in the economy, and I think a lot of us were trying to wish the economy was going better, I could tell it wasn’t getting better because I’d go to gas stations, people weren’t filling up their tanks. I’d go to grocery stores, people were taking items out of their shopping carts because they went over their budget. And so this is the kind of thing that really helps you clue in what’s happening.”
On Trump and January 6th:
“I was on the floor of January 6. This is the only person in recent history, since the Civil War, that has actively tried to overthrow our country.”
NewDEAL is a selective center-left network of state and local elected leaders from across the nation to promote the ideas for expanding opportunity, spurring economic growth, and creating broadly shared, sustainable progress.
11/20/25