Gallego’s campaigning may net job offer
At the beginning of a long-promised stop in Arizona last week, Democrat Joe Biden used some of his first public words for a special shout-out to Rep. Ruben Gallego.
“You’re a big deal, man. I’m serious,” Biden said.
The warm greeting was likely more than perfunctory chatter at the top of a well-worn stump speech. It was a nod to the significant role the three-term Democrat is playing in the Biden campaign across the country. As the 2020 elections hurtle toward their finish, Gallego has emerged as a key Arizona Democrat to watch.
He was among the few surrogates on hand for the Biden campaign during the first presidential debate in Cleveland. He is a member of Biden’s Latino Leadership Committee and has spoken — virtually — to Democratic groups across the country, from Fresno, Calif., to Polk County, Iowa. Before the new coronavirus crisis wiped it out, Gallego helped secure a Democratic primary debate in Phoenix that was scheduled for March.
The Latino, Ivy League-educated, former Marine whose youthful appearance and blunt politics play well on CNN and Twitter also is putting his money where his mouth is. In August, he transferred $500,000 from his campaign account to the Democratic National Committee to be used in Arizona, and has asked other Democrats to offer similar help.
Such moves, along with his efforts to maintain traditional priorities for the Pentagon, also beg the question: Would Gallego join the Biden administration, if there is one?
Gallego sidestepped such speculation. He maintains the next few weeks of the election are what matter now.
“My first focus is that we turn Arizona blue and we win the presidency. I love being a member of Congress,” he said. “I’m going to serve my district, and if any other opportunities come up, I’ll consider them as they come. But all that matters is winning this election first.”
The Biden campaign has sought to tamp down speculation involving others on who would be part of a Biden administration. A spokesman for the campaign did not respond to a request for comment about Gallego’s prospects.
But speculation over possible posts in a Biden administration is underway.
Politico reported that three New Mexican lawmakers are vying for Interior secretary and Sen. Chris Coons, DDel., wrote a piece for Foreign Affairs Magazine last week. That didn’t dampen conjecture about whether he would have a shot at becoming Biden’s Secretary of State.
Richard Herrera, an Arizona State University professor emeritus who studies politics and voter sentiments, said speculation may be premature, but Gallego “has already been noticed” by the Biden campaign, which will feel a need to include people of color if there is an administration.
“He’s in a very interesting position, in part because, as far as I know, there’s never been a Latino secretary of Defense or ambassador to NATO or the secretary of Veterans Affairs,” Herrera said, noting there are other sub-Cabinet level positions that could also make sense for a House member like Gallego.
If Gallego did join the White House, it would create the need for a special election, likely next year, for his seat.
Gallego’s actions suggest he has his eyes on bigger concerns than his district, which includes downtown Phoenix and parts of the West Valley, such as Glendale.
His interests and record suggest that he might be a good fit for national security, foreign policy or diplomatic post in a Biden administration.
He is a member of the House Armed Services Committee and has been an outspoken critic of the Trump administration’s military and foreign policy, especially on hot-button issues such as questioning intelligence assessments of Iran and withdrawing U.S. troops based in Germany.
The German issue has a lot of international interest at the moment. Trump wants to reduce the American footprint in Germany.
Trump has said he wants to withdraw troops from Germany to reassign some to other parts of Europe and as punishment for that country’s relatively low spending on its own national defense.
Gallego authored an amendment to the Pentagon’s annual budget bill this year that would block Trump from pulling 9,500 U.S. troops from Germany.
It attracted support from House Republicans, though such a provision isn’t part of the Senate version of the funding bill, meaning it will become part of negotiations.
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, has said he supports rethinking deployment of U.S. troops in Europe and said it would take years to do in any event.
Gallego said his amendment is more than about the location of troops or spending; it’s a message to Germany, NATO, and to Russia, the country that would figure to benefit from a slimmeddown U.S. presence in Europe.
“It’s really important that we’re sending messages across the Atlantic that there is a community at least in Congress that still believes in the transatlantic relationship ... and to Russia that this is not good,” Gallego said in a call with reporters this week. “It’s not a unified position of the United States that we want to pull out of Germany, and they shouldn’t make any calculations based on that.”
Gallego’s intervention on the issue of troop levels and alliances is no surprise to Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., who chairs the House Armed Services Committee.
“More than once the president has implied that he wants to pull out of NATO and/or just simply attacked and denigrated our NATO partners,” Smith said. “Ruben has been able to get language into our bill consistently reaffirming our commitment to NATO and our commitment to that alliance. Similarly, he’s been able to do that on South Korea.”
Smith said Gallego’s international outlook seems in sync with Biden’s on preserving alliances.
“He’s a veteran. He doesn’t want to have to have U.S. service members out there fighting,” Smith said. “He wants to keep the peace in the world. He’s got a direct personal stake in it, and he understands that part of keeping the peace in the world is making more friends and fewer enemies. That’s been a big focus of his service in Congress.”
This week Gallego co-wrote an essay for the Atlantic Council, a nonpartisan international affairs think tank, urging creation of a “digital Marshall Plan” for the U.S. and its NATO allies.
Gallego wrote the piece with Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., and focused on the “creeping, quiet influence” of Chinese investment in Western infrastructure. It’s an issue that has also put him in collaboration with Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.
In recent months, Gallego has met with ambassadors and foreign defense ministers from former Soviet-bloc nations and weighed in on Belarusian elections. He’s advocated stronger ties with Taiwan and maintaining a military presence in South Korea.
And Gallego is drawn especially close to the presidential campaign for several reasons.
For one, he has a friendship with Sen. Kamala Harris of California, Biden’s running mate and one of multiple candidates Gallego endorsed ahead of Biden during the primaries.
Gallego has been a prominent, longstanding critic of Trump before he won the 2016 election.
“Donald Trump is a scam artist. He is trying to pull off the ultimate scam: pretending he cares about veterans,” Gallego said in an address to the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
Gallego is close to Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., who is a co-chair of the Biden transition team. The team’s advisory board includes Gallego’s former Harvard classmate, Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend., Ind., and one-time presidential candidate.
Last year he also flirted with the idea of running for the Senate, suggesting a professional restlessness.
Gallego’s large contribution to the DNC, tasked with electing Biden, cut deeply into Gallego’s own campaign funds. As a member of the leadership team with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Gallego said he is unconcerned with being able to raise money for future races.
For now, he’s in Arizona’s most-lopsided Democratic district and running against Josh Barnett, a lightly funded Republican. But next year Arizona’s Independent Redistricting Commission will redraw all the lines from scratch.
When it does, his current district could be part of an area that includes some other sitting Democrat or is in an area that has far more Republicans.
Gallego’s liberal politics have also bent to pragmatic reality more than once.
After the 2016 elections, Gallego supported Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, for House speaker when Democrats were in the minority and had no chance to control the chamber.
Two years later, Gallego voted for Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., when she reclaimed the speaker’s gavel.
“We came back in 2018 and she called and asked for my vote,” Gallego said. “I told her I would if we took back the House. Guess what? I’m a man of my word.”
Democratic leadership named him assistant whip for the current Congress.
In 2019, he initially backed Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., for president and served as the national campaign chairman for his short-lived White House bid.
By March 2020, days after the Democratic field effectively collapsed to a one-on-one race between Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Gallego endorsed Biden.
“I know Joe Biden has the wisdom, experience, compassion, and empathy to beat Donald Trump and get our government working again,” he said at the time.