Possibility of party winning back House will factor in Arizona Gallego’s decision
Rep. Ruben Gallego is focused on helping Democrats win in Arizona in 2018, but he’s also weighing a Senate run of his own in two years time. And he’s confident he would win a Democratic primary.
The Arizona Democrat has previously said he is considering a run for the 2020 special election for the last two years of the late Republican Sen. John McCain’s term. Former GOP Sen. Jon Kyl was appointed to McCain’s seat, but he has said he plans to step down at the end of the year.
“At the end of the day, I think we’re going to make a determination based on: Can we win? And can we make a difference for Arizona?” Gallego said in an interview here at a local coffee shop Tuesday morning. “And that’s it. I’m not really worried about a primary.”
The two-term congressman from the 7th District was confident he could defeat Grant Woods, McCain’s former chief of staff and onetime state attorney general. Woods has said he is considering switching parties to run as a Democrat or independent.
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“Grant Woods cannot win a Democratic primary in Arizona. So he can make his own determination, and I will just make my own in my own time,” Gallego said. “And we’ll go to a race, and I’ll defeat him and that will be that.”
“He was [co-]chairman of Gov. [Jan] Brewer’s re-election campaign after SB 1070,” the congressman added, referring to the state’s controversial 2010 immigration law. “That’s not going to fly with Democrats”
