- Rep. Gallego is in a tough Senate race with Republican Kari Lake
- NRSC ad criticizes Gallego for leaving his wife pregnant in 2016
- Recent polls show Gallego leading Lake in battleground state
The Republican Senate campaign has come out with a scathing new ad accusing Arizona Senate candidate Ruben Gallego of being a “deadbeat dad” as the Senate race in battleground states heats up.
“One of the greatest joys in life is being a father, but days before that moment that changed his life, Rubén Gallego abandoned his family and abandoned his newborn son,” says the narrator.
She continues, “if deadbeat dad Ruben Gallego abandoned his own family, he won’t be there for Arizonans when it matters most.”
Gallego, a Democratic congressman representing Arizona’s 3rd District, is in a tough Senate race against Republican firebrand Kari Lake.
The average of Real Clear Politics polls in the race shows Gallego with a six-point lead over Lake.
Arizona will be a major battleground in November, not only in the presidential race but also for the Senate seat, as Republicans seek to regain the majority.
Senate candidate Rubén Gallego speaking at an event with Vice President Kamala Harris on April 12.
Gallego is in a tight race with Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake.
The 30-second ad was released by the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
“Arizona women cannot trust a man who divorced his wife when she was weeks away from having a child,” NRSC spokesperson Tate Mitchell said in a statement.
Gallego and his ex-wife, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, separated in 2016 while she was pregnant.
Gallego married Sydney Barron in 2021 and they welcomed a daughter last July.
Despite their divorce, Mayor Gallego, a Democrat, endorsed Gallego late last year in her Senate bid to fill the seat vacated by outgoing Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.
In her December 2023 endorsement, Mayor Gallego said she would do an “excellent job.”
Rep. Gallego’s attorneys have been fighting with the Free Beacon to prevent his divorce records from being revealed.
Both Rubén and Kate Gallego have said little publicly about their decision to separate, calling it a private matter.
The NRSC ran a 30-second political ad attacking Rep. Gallego for leaving his wife in 2016 while she was pregnant.
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego speaking at the state Capitol on April 9. Despite her breakup with Rep. Gallego in 2016 while she was pregnant, she endorsed him in the Senate race in November.
Gallego, an Iraq War veteran, has said he arrived at a time when he was having “outbursts” induced by post-traumatic stress disorder.
The congressman has been more open about his battle with post-traumatic stress disorder. He has said that wanting to be a better father prompted him to seek treatment.
Lake has attacked his opponent on numerous occasions over the timing of their divorce.
“I won’t let a man who left his wife when she was nine months pregnant with their first child lecture me about motherhood,” she wrote in a post on X last year.
The new ad used images of a pregnant woman and ultrasound images.
It comes as Democrats have been heavily attacking Lake for her about-face on abortion, as the issue has been a central focus in the Arizona race after the state Supreme Court ruled that an 1864 law banning almost all abortions could be maintained.
Gallego went after Lake for criticizing the 1864 ban following the State Supreme Court decision after she called it a “great law” while running for governor in 2022.
Lake responded to their attacks by reposting those who criticized Gallego over her divorce.
A new post said: “He is not, and never has been, pro-woman or pro-family.”
Another post read: “Why did you abandon your pregnant wife, Ruben?”