Ruben Gallego, the Senator from Arizona who was, proudly and with great profit, Representative Eric Swalwell's best friend, is about as ethically challenged as you would expect.
He and Swalwell were roommates for a time—and during that time, Swalwell was not exactly the most faithful husband, and there are suggestions that Gallego and Swalwell shared the same habits and perhaps "companions," although there are no confirmations of that.
You may recall that when Swalwell went down, Gallego panicked like a deer in the headlights, and he is now spending money for a crisis communications team to help him extricate himself from the mess he got himself into.
🚨 BOMBSHELL: Former Ruben Gallego staffer says she rejected his sexual advance, reported it to chief of staff - and was FIRED in retaliation!
— Publius (@OcrazioCornPop) April 15, 2026
She is expected to FULLY expose @RubenGallego very soon.
Congress has whispered about this for years.
Now it's exploding just as his… pic.twitter.com/fZf87kbr4n
BOMBSHELL: Former Ruben Gallego staffer says she rejected his sexual advance, reported it to chief of staff - and was FIRED in retaliation!She is expected to FULLY expose @RubenGallego very soon. Congress has whispered about this for years. Now it's exploding just as his buddy Swalwell implodes.WHEN WILL GALLEGO RESIGN?
Gallego, unsurprisingly, has quite a few skeletons in his closet, and POLITICO did an in-depth dive into his campaign spending, and found quite a few that look suspiciously like self-dealing.
Gallego tapped campaign cash for family travel, Super Bowl tickets, records show https://t.co/VzXRoMYFv8
— POLITICO (@politico) June 21, 2026
What's striking about all these "campaign expenses" is that they might or might not be legal, and Gallego insists that they are all quite legitimate uses of campaign donations. After all, he reported them.
Sen. Ruben Gallego repeatedly used campaign cash to fund luxury outings with his wife and to care for his children since launching his campaign for Senate in 2023, according to a POLITICO review of campaign finance records and a person familiar with the senator’s spending.
The Arizona Democrat has used his leadership PAC to fund recent trips to Miami, Chicago, Disneyland and Disney World with his family. Gallego has tapped that PAC and his main campaign committee for more than $18,000 in reimbursements for child care since 2019 — including $400 to his wife’s mother for babysitting.
And Federal Election Commission records show that on one such occasion, Gallego used a joint campaign account with disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell to attend the 2023 Super Bowl in Arizona with his wife, Sydney.
Federal lawmakers can legally use campaign committee funds for travel, food, events and even child care, as long as those funds are not for “personal use,” meaning they may not cover activities that would exist irrespective of the campaign, according to the FEC. Leadership PACs are not even beholden to that “personal use” rule, meaning lawmakers have broad latitude to use the money they raise as long as it has some fundraising function. Ruben Gallego has leaned into that leeway, with his three children, Sydney Gallego, her mother and their full-time au pair frequently joining the senator on donors’ dime, according to the person, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the situation.
“He just spends his campaign account like it’s his personal slush fund,” said the person. “He’s using campaign cash to live a luxury lifestyle.”
Gallego did not dispute using donor funds to pay for family travel or child care. “This is not breaking news,” he said in a statement to POLITICO. “With the rising costs of child care and the burden it has on the budgets of American families, Democrats and Republicans in Congress and the White House alike regularly travel with their wives and children, as is permitted by the FEC.”
Gallego is considering a presidential run in 2028. On Friday, Gallego traveled to South Carolina, where he took part in the Democratic Party’s “On the Road” series on Juneteenth.
You would think that the reaction of the "person familiar with the Senator's spending" that all this is unethical would be shared by everybody, but the way that campaign finance laws are set up, it actually is a matter of interpretation. What, after all, is a campaign expense? You would think that is clear, and that family vacations wouldn't count, but somebody would have to file a campaign finance complaint, and then it would have to be adjudicated.
And even if it were disallowed, Gallego could likely get out of trouble just by paying it back.
Barring an investigation into actual corruption and a resignation or very unlikely expulsion from the Senate, it looks like Gallego has a certain five more years in the Senate (he was elected in 2024, and won't face the voters of Arizona until 2030), and if rumors are true and he runs for president (as his buddy Swalwell did, with Gallego as his wingman), having this "scandal" play out now might actually help him put it behind him by 2028.
If you think this moves the needle for Democrats, you haven't been paying attention to the Nazi in Maine.. https://t.co/xjW7RWzml0
— Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D. (@neoavatara) June 22, 2026
Old news.
Being a cynic, I expect Gallego will easily survive if these are the big revelations. Gallego is a scumbag, for sure.
But that's now an advantage if you are a Democrat. He should get a Nazi tattoo.
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