CNN
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From the time Ruben Gallego taught his colleagues on the House floor how to hold a pen as a weapon to protect themselves from the rioters on January 6th to the time he took home the pen he used to sign his oath of office on the Senate floor. is 1,458 days. The 20 years between riding a patrol in Iraq and telling him to stay still while his wife puts a new Senate pin on his chest may feel even shorter to him.
And since he and Donald Trump, men with far different life histories and political paths, have both won in Arizona, a state with rapidly changing demographics and political turmoil. Less than three months have passed.
“Honestly, life has been so interesting that nothing really shocks me or surprises me anymore when something happens,” Gallego said Friday during a ceremony in the Old Senate Chamber. he told CNN as he returned from being sworn in. “At least I’m very lucky to have experienced a lot of good things.”
What makes Gallego like other senators is his intense ambition and drive. There are other reasons why the 45-year-old Gallego is an unusual fit for an institution dominated from the 1790s until today, and mostly occupied by older white men with lots of money. .
“I’m sorry I didn’t win,” Kamala Harris said glumly to Kamala Harris during the swearing-in photo session, accompanied by her 8-year-old son, who was already feeling tired and sick, but the vice president hugged him and said, Ta. , we’re not defeated.” – And while carrying his sometimes squirming 18-month-old daughter on his shoulders, Gallego joked about not being in the chamber earlier for the House speaker vote, saying he was Through looking back at what was.
“I’m not that far from a minimum wage job. I’m not that far from sleeping on that floor (of the house he grew up in, one of four children of a single mother). . It won’t be long before I go on patrol,” Gallego said. “Because it’s so recent, we can give them that real-life experience. And how difficult it is to make rent, how difficult it is to access the Veterans Administration, to really reach your family’s goals.” The ability to understand how difficult it is to do so and how governments need to respond to it.”
As he said these words, the elevator doors of the Capitol opened and gave way to U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, a longtime Pennsylvania political powerhouse who had spent millions of his personal fortune from his career in finance. Republican Dave McCormick came out. They shared a moment of recognition: “Congratulations!” From one family group to another, they patted each other on the bicep, but neither seemed very pleased.
Sandwich Shop and Time in the Marines
Since winning Kali Lake by a narrower-than-expected margin in November, Democrats have been making the media rounds offering little ideas of what the party needs to do to win back more Latinos like them. I brought them out one by one. He explains how he and Trump won the state despite his progressivism as a first-generation Chicagoan growing up poor and the president-elect’s faux wealthy xenophobic nostalgia. He said voters last year clearly wanted an outsider.
His swearing-in ceremony, held in the basement of the Capitol Visitor Center, was attended by a wide range of people, from his high school librarian to his first boss at the sandwich shop where he worked to help pay his bills. . As they snacked on drinks and sandwiches, the Marines he patrolled with in Iraq 20 years ago and members of a mariachi band brought in for the occasion posed for selfies with him.
“He made me believe in this country. There are many times when I feel down, but because of him I have hope,” Steve Zelentes said. He remembers teaching Gallego how to make Chicago-style hot dogs and cheese fries, and also remembers asking the 16-year-old new employee what he wanted to do on the job. I laughed when the answer came back, “I want to be president.”
He laughed as he recalled Gallego’s reaction. “What’s so funny?”
“I said, ‘Good luck, good luck,’” Zerentes said. “What are you going to say?”
Gallego laughed when he heard Tserentes’ story.
“You did it?!” he said. “I was going crazy.”
Tserentes was not alone. Linda Connor, Gallego’s high school librarian, told him at graduation that he was going to be president and thanked him for helping him and letting him stay at her house the night of the little chase. I remember all I had to do as a thank you was let her stay at my house. In charge of the Library of Congress.
John Byron remembers the first day he met Gallego. That’s when I heard that a new Harvard graduate had just checked into Delta Company’s 4th Reconnaissance Battalion. He recalled his reaction when he heard that a man with a fancy degree was not coming as an officer. “Let’s go see this idiot!”
While many of their fellow Marines were leaning toward George W. Bush, both men were closely tied in supporting John Kerry in the 2004 election. They debated politics and whether troops like theirs should be in Iraq. At the time, they never talked about Gallego running for president, but other things were very ingrained through their days together in training and subsequent deployments.
Gallego was no GI Joe. He was a smart guy who might annoy the people he was arguing with, but Byron and others remember him keeping pace. They remember when they wrapped a rope around the Marine’s legs and pulled him to the side because he wouldn’t stop snoring every time the noise started. They remember the day the vehicle Gallego was riding in overturned without exploding, killing their best friend with an IED.
Mr. Byron remains a proud Democrat. He recorded an ad for Gallego in his Senate campaign. He is frustrated that he won the same election that returned Trump to the White House, but says “time will tell” that the next president is not the right choice like his friend. He says he believes it. Mr. Gallego often talks about how he is the embodiment of the American dream, especially now that he has won the Senate race, and Mr. Byron says that’s exactly what he says. “Americans want to meet people from their own neighborhoods.”
Gallego insists that his politics are neither progressive nor ideological at all, but rather pragmatic. But now, as he begins to find a new job in Washington, he says both his and Trump’s victories send messages that go beyond Arizonans who voted for both.
“Democrats always have to find a way to fight for this little guy, because if we don’t, someone else will take over that role,” he said.
Andrew Taylor, who met Gallego when the Marines in Albuquerque joined up with the group in Ohio before being deployed to Iraq, said it was about people his age, people nearing the end of Generation X, and the oldest. said this is especially important for Millennials. Those shaped by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the Great Financial Crisis a few years later were the first to see the promise of going to college and playing by the old rules unravel. That’s what it means.
That Gallego has made it this far may indicate that all is not lost, Taylor said.
Despite the political back and forth on the left, right and others, “there are still a lot of people who feel like we can do it,” Taylor said.
The mix that Gallego represents is already starting to unfold. One of the police officers who was at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was invited to a thank-you dinner with supporters on Friday night after being sworn in. Utah Sen. Mike Lee, a conservative ally of the president-elect, said in the days after the 2020 election that he initially called on Trump’s last White House to pursue claims of fraud over the results. I heard that they encouraged the government to explore legal options, but ultimately discouraged efforts. A mariachi band was scheduled to come to his noon reception and he asked me to stop by. They probably won’t co-sponsor many bills, but at least they have a pact to practice their Spanish with each other.
Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and prominent gun safety advocate who arrived at the chamber during Arizona’s close presidential election four years ago, was joined by Kyrsten Sinema, also in Arizona’s close presidential election. Gallego said he is pleased to have a new partner to replace the senator. She grew up poor, was always known as an unpredictable force during her first term, and eventually left the Democratic Party.
Kelly said Gallego is different from many members of the Senate, but it comes down to “whether he can push things in a certain direction.” But there’s a lot of inertia and a lot of resistance. ”
Asked whether he thought the new senator or the new president-elect better represented the future of the state they both won, Mr. Kelly said he was fully committed to his partner in Washington.
“I truly believe in this country,” Kelly said. “So I think the future of this country will be along the lines that Ruben represents.
