Sen. Ruben Gallego’s run of bad decisions keeps on catching up with him, it seems.
The Arizona Democrat reportedly engaged in sexual relationships with at least two Democratic congressional staffers and admitted it, according to a Thursday report in the New York Post.
While the staffers weren’t his and happened while he wasn’t married to either his first or second wife, the news raises questions about his decision-making ability and moral compass, in addition to questions about whether an earlier Senate Ethics Committee investigation looked deeply enough into his actions in Congress.
Three sources, including one who Gallego directly admitted the nature of the relationships to, told the New York Post of the relationships with Texas Democrat aides.
One of the sources said that it was part and parcel with a “pattern of mistakes and missteps and judgment calls” on Gallego’s part, adding that one of the women he had sex with was in her 20s and far younger. Both women were significantly less powerful than Gallego, who was in the U.S. House at the time.
“What else could there be out there?” the source said.
Gallego has come under criticism for his wholehearted endorsement of two prominent Democrats credibly accused of sexual assault during the 2026 campaign cycle: former California Rep. Eric Swalwell, who was running for governor, and Graham Platner, who was nominated for Maine’s Senate seat before withdrawing due to the allegations.
Will this end any chance of Gallego making a run at the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination?
In addition, Swalwell was one of Gallego’s closest friends in Congress before the allegations erupted in April. Gallego himself denounced Swalwell in an impassioned media briefing outside of his office, saying that he “heard rumors of him being flirty” but that was all:
WATCH | Sen. Ruben Gallego on Rep. Eric Swalwell:
“I heard rumours of him being flirty.”pic.twitter.com/1s2jP1MQmE https://t.co/DXlMZAHiic
— VOZ (@Voz_US) April 14, 2026
“Eric Swalwell lied to all of us — lied to the most powerful people in this country — and they trusted him,” he said at the time. “Look, we socialized. We went out. But I never saw him engage in any of the predatory behavior, harassment, sexual assault or even like anything that.”
Gallego, who was elected to the Senate in 2024, had an ethics complaint brought against him in the wake of the Swalwell revelations by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican from Florida, who accused Gallego of “disturbing allegations” which were, in part, “sexual in nature.” Others involved campaign finance violations.
In a post on April 23, Luna said that “I have now heard of 4 women who have had multiple and uncomfortable/inappropriate advances/comments/touching, etc. from Senator Gallego.”
I have now heard of 4 women who have had multiple and uncomfortable/inappropriate advances/comments/touching, etc. from Senator Gallego. This is not made up and the Senate is being awfully quiet about it. https://t.co/LcYivkWHwC
— Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (@RepLuna) April 23, 2026
However, the relationships with the staffers were not brought under scrutiny by the Senate Ethics Committee — in part, one source says, because “Ethics looked in the wrong place.”
Senate Ethics Committee Chair Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, apparently “didn’t ask” about the relationships with the staffers, the source said, and “focused squarely on what Luna presented to them.”
Gallego didn’t deny the relationships, merely telling an NBC News reporter, “I’m not going to engage in gossip.”
Just asked @RubenGallego about this report:
GALLEGO; “I’m not going to engage in gossip”
Q: is it true though?
GALLEGO: “I’m not going to engage in gossip.” https://t.co/FpoAAJu40V— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) July 16, 2026
That sounds reassuring.
Keep in mind that Gallego is, at the very least, in discussion for the 2028 presidential race. Keep in mind also that, in Washington, D.C., the consensual-but-problematic sexual relationship is often the prelude to the much more problematic sex allegations.
I cannot claim any insider information as to whether that’s coming down the pike regarding Sen. Gallego. I do know that he’s been trying to wrangle out of the Swalwell friendship and Platner endorsement for some time now. While Fox News likewise noted he was allegedly unmarried while pursuing these dalliances, this shines a light on his problematic marital history.
Just before Christmas in 2016, Gallego filed for divorce from his first wife while she was nine months pregnant. In 2018, Gallego, then 39, met a 25-year-old Democrat operative at the annual congressional baseball game. According to the Washington Free Beacon, he proposed eight months later, and the two were married in April 2021 in Puerto Rico.
That wedding wasn’t without controversy, as it raised some campaign finance questions regarding Gallego:
The Gallego campaign says their June 7, 2021 payment had nothing to do with his wedding in Puerto Rico (which was at the Hyatt). Instead the $2,000 payment was a scheduled deposit for a September political event held at the Fairmont. https://t.co/xudJwKzjcC pic.twitter.com/u6ocVj6oMN
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) April 16, 2026
Unanswered Qs: Why did Swalwell (who’s marooned + not talking to media) pay that hotel on June 7, 3 days after the wedding? Why did Rep. Linda Sanchez, who also didn’t explain to the Daily Mail?
But Gallego’s campaign paid a different hotel, where it then had a donor retreat.
— David Weigel (@daveweigel) April 16, 2026
Furthermore, since Gallego was married to his first wife when he entered Congress, this would have been after he left her while pregnant but before bedding another.
All of which is to say that this report raises questions regarding whether or not Gallego is going to be in Congress by 2028, much less in the presidential race.
In a party where the mere appearance of a “power imbalance” in a sexual relationship is a decided negative, Gallego seems to have engaged in at least two physical romances that certainly don’t pass the Democrat smell test. He also has Swalwell and Platner on his résumé. We have the non-denial denial of these relationships.
The source in the New York Post’s story is right: What else is there out there on Ruben Gallego? And will the Democrats have to wait for a presidential primary to find out?
Or perhaps you can take the words of a Democratic operative who talked to the New York Post about Gallego: “I have witnessed firsthand his very flirtatious nature after a couple of drinks,” she said. “Maybe he thinks he’s being charming? I don’t know. Guy gives me the creeps. I’ve always steered clear.”
America should, as well.
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