MIAMI (AP) — On a warm Sunday morning in Miami, Sen. Ruben Gallego stepped out of a car and approached parishioners exiting a church beneath palm trees, handing out flyers in this Dominican neighborhood. Gallego left some of his staff members behind as he drummed up support for a fellow Democrat running to be the next mayor of the majority-Hispanic city.

“Mucho gusto,” he told the churchgoers, Spanish for “nice to meet you.”

“Soy Ruben Gallego de Arizona,” he said, introducing himself without mentioning he is a U.S. senator.

The Arizona Democrat is emerging as a crucial surrogate for a party desperately seeking to win back the Latino support that slipped in 2024 with the election of President Donald Trump. His fall travels have included trips to New Jersey, Virginia and Florida, where he campaigned for Democrats who went on to win their elections. Strategists say Gallego is flexing his muscle as a rising star for the party while also laying the groundwork for a 2028 presidential run despite not being a household name like California Gov. Gavin Newsom or U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

It's a role Gallego is expected to continue next year, when Democrats hope to break Republicans' hold on Congress and counter Trump's agenda.

“Ruben Gallego is going to be our not-so-secret, secret weapon,” said Maria Cardona, a longtime Democratic operative and member of the Democratic National Committee.

A surrogate in high demand

Gallego is among the Democrats named as possible 2028 contenders who had the busiest travel calendar in 2025. He stumped for Democratic female candidates in New Jersey’s and Virginia’s gubernatorial races and Miami’s mayoral race.

“Ruben brings instant validation to them not only because his last name is Gallego,” said Chuck Rocha, who mobilized Latinos for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid in 2020 and for Gallego in 2024. “He’s risked his life for his country, he grew up in an immigrant household from nothing, and now he’s a U.S. senator. That’s the kind of guy you want standing beside you talking to Latinos about why they should vote for this white woman.”

In the 2024 presidential election, Trump made inroads in heavily Puerto Rican areas of eastern Pennsylvania, turned South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley and improved his numbers along Florida’s Interstate 4 corridor by focusing heavily on the economy and border security.

But results from recent elections have shown signs that key voting groups, including Hispanics, were shifting away from Republicans. And in Miami, Eileen Higgins became the first Democratic mayor to be elected in nearly 30 years.

“We’re going to places where there’s big Latino populations,” Gallego told The Associated Press in Miami. “Obviously, they swung a little too much in our opinion toward Trump last time, and we wanna talk to Democrats and we wanna talk to Latinos, we wanna talk to candidates about how to get that population back into our corner.”

Gallego himself outperformed Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, when he won a Senate seat in Arizona by more than 2 points while Trump carried the state by nearly 6 points. And, he gives the Republican president credit for his border security measures and, at times, praises Trump’s blunt style for not overthinking economic proposals when crafting his populist messaging with ideas such as “no tax on tips.”

“We need to be identified as someone who’s pro-working class,” Gallego said at a recent event.

How affordability is personal

Gallego grew up in poverty in Chicago’s Little Village, a predominantly Mexican neighborhood on the city’s southwest side. He was raised by a single mother after his father left the family and was imprisoned for dealing drugs. Gallego worked multiple jobs to help pay the bills while still in high school. He was accepted to Harvard University, joined the Marines and fought in Iraq with a unit that sustained heavy casualties.

“All of the Democrats are now talking about affordability, affordability, affordability,” said Jesse Lehrich, a Democratic strategist. “But how many of those actually know what it feels like to not know where the next rent check is going to come from? Or not know how they're going to pay for groceries this week?”

Lehrich, who is closely tracking the 2028 contenders’ travels and media appearances, said there are not very many top-tier Democrats who sound like regular people, adding that, in contrast, Gallego can be “rough around the edges.”

The senator, who previously served in the U.S. House, likes boasting that he did not listen to the Washington establishment when he decided to host watch parties for boxing matches and organized a rodeo and a low rider car show, dismissing concerns that it would be perceived as condescending to Hispanic supporters.

He does not come across as polished as others like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro or former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, but Lehrich says that may work in Gallego’s favor because people are craving rawness.

“He kind of feels perfect for the moment,” Lehrich said.

A Latino on the GOP side

Some strategists and commentators say the Democratic Party has not done a good job at elevating Hispanic candidates at a national level. They worry Republicans are propping up another former Latino senator, now Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who ran for president in 2016 and is often mentioned by Trump when talking about 2028.

Xochitl Hinojosa, a political commentator, said she sees Gallego’s strength not only in appealing to Latino voters, but also in the broader electorate in battleground areas, emphasizing how hard it is for a candidate to pull himself over the finish line when the presidential candidate does not do it in that state.

“I think him winning a very tough seat has catapulted him to the top,” Hinojosa said. “Democrats need to think through how we need to think about Latinos if Republicans have a Latino on the ticket and Democrats don’t.”

Asked about a possible 2028 presidential bid, Gallego indicated it was too early to say.

“My calculation is I have three kids. And I have six years in the Senate,” he said. “We’re going to focus on that, and we’re here to help Democrats all across the country, and we’ll see what happens in the future.”

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