Queer Ally Beats Out Far-Right Contender for AZ Senate Seat

Rubén Gallego (D) has beat out Kari Lake (R) in the most recent race for the Senate in Arizona. He replaces Krysten Sinema, a contentious name in politics following her move from Democrat to Independent in 2022. Gallego, in addition to being a notorious LGBTQ+ ally, will also be the state’s first Latino Senator, his parents being Colombian and Mexican immigrants.

For political scientists, Arizona is considered a stronghold Republican state; it’s only gone to a Democratic presidential candidate twice since 1952 (Biden in 2020, Clinton in 1996) with 2024 being no exception. However, such a deeply Republican state has not been kind to far-right candidate Kari Lake—She ran an unsuccessful Trump-endorsed campaign for governor in 2022, after which she refused to concede to the winning candidate, Katie Hobbs.

She’s pushed the agenda that Trump actually won the 2020 election and accused the Biden Administration of withholding National School Lunch Program Funds from schools “that don’t adopt his perverted sexual agenda” and “allow men into the girls’ bathroom and locker room.” This does, interestingly, follow the flow of the state’s electoral patterns since Trump’s first election in 2016, as there’s been across-the-board rejection for Trump-endorsed candidates since then according to AP.

Gallego, on the other hand, won with about a 50% vote to Lake’s 48%, giving Senate Democrats a leg up with 47 to the Republican Party’s 53. Gallego is both a Harvard graduate and a veteran, having toured in Iraq from 2002 to 2006. He’s been the House representative for Arizona’s third congressional district since 2015 and has been an actively political ally to the queer community.

In 2014, he led the charge to oppose a measure that would allow Arizonans to discriminate against members of the LGBTQ+ community and be legally protected in doing so. He voted against the so-called Protection of Women and Girls Act in the House last year, which would have made it illegal for trans girls to play on women’s sports teams in public schools. He also co-sponsored the Equality Act in the House, which, according to his website, “outlaws discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in housing, banking, jury selection, transportation, and public accommodations.”

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