Gallego at Crooked Con: Talk About What Matters, Affordability

WASHINGTON - At Crooked Con today, Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) spoke about how Democrats can win back working-class voters by focusing the party's message on issues that matter, and rebuilding trust by showing up everywhere and talking to everyone.

In a conversation with Crooked co-founder and former presidential speechwriter Jon Lovett, Senator Gallego spoke on how Democrats can connect with voters, win on affordability, and build a bigger tent party.

Read excerpts of their conversation below:

On winning voters by talking about what matters: affordability

"When Democrats are talking about voters - and this is a thing that I did, I was really different from other people last cycle, I talked to them about really living a good, fulfilling life, and that the Democrats are going to fight for you to have the good, fulfilling life, so that way you can spend time with your kids, you can take a vacation, you can relax, you can breathe a little easier. […] When we design policies that way, that's when we start getting those voters to come back to us."

"I've been toying around with what should we do about the minimum wage. First of all, we should stop calling it that. Nobody wants to ever have a minimum; you never want to work for anything minimum. But number two, even when you're talking to a worker, I think it's easier for us to say, 'hey, we want to pay you […] the amount of money you need to survive.' […] But let's be like, proud of the fact that I'm going to give you a wage that you're going to be able to actually live and thrive under. And don't be afraid to say it. […] I think what a lot of us nerds don't understand is that these working people are really effing busy. So we need to make sure that we can get our message to them concretely and quickly, and not [by] having to actually go into a real deep policy statement about how we're going to make their life better."

On the kind of daring risk-taking Democrats need more of:

"During [my] campaign […] we tested a lot of things. […] I did these boxing matches, I put rodeos together, I went to low rider shows, […] I went to every festival I could find. […] You can't be afraid that we are not the popular party anymore. We actually need to understand that we need to work to get votes. We can't just expect the votes to come to us. Same with policy. […] We need to kind of be thinking about that big picture and not necessarily get down into the weeds on something. […] Like, don't be afraid to make a mistake."

On the need for a big tent party:

"When we say we're part of the big tent, we have to mean we're part of a big tent. And that big tent goes everywhere. […] And again, we don't have to agree on everything. We are a big tent, big policy party, and that's how we win. You don't see the Republicans doing this type of internal like pearl clutching when they have some crazy wacko that wins whatever portion of the country."

On why Democrats must continue fighting for the 24 million Americans whose health care premiums will double:

"If the Democrats are known as the people that allow health insurance rate premiums to double without a serious fight, you're going to have those people that really want us to be in that fight not believe in us. […] If we aren't here to provide and protect affordable health insurance, what is our cause? What are we going to say to the voter about why you should elect us? Because they don't understand CRs, they don't understand 'open the government', they don't understand appropriations. They understand 'Democrats help me have affordable health insurance'. What is our cause if we don't have that at that point? That's what I'm saying."

On Trump's politicization and abuse of the military:

"What's going to happen if they politicize the military - if you turn the military against U.S. citizens - number one, first of all, the U.S. military is going to lose. But number two, the U.S. military is going to lose its stature within this country of being a political force for good. You're going to have less and less people joining, and you're going to have a less amount of people that will ever really think about the military in a positive light. And [they] will think about it more as an enemy, versus people that are here to protect us."

"Because [Trump is] so dumb when it comes to military, he thinks sending 1000 military personnel to a city of like, 2.7 million is going to do anything. […] It just doesn't work that way. But what we will be doing is making us weaker, because it's just going to internally divide us as a country. It's going to divide and create more hatred. This is why he's trying to send National Guardsmen from Texas into Illinois, because he wants that division. He gets more power the more angry we are at each other, and not able to train our actual anger on him and trying to stop him."

Later, on a panel with fellow Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Senator Gallego discussed what America would look like with Democrats in charge of one or both chambers, and how Democrats can sell Americans on that vision.

On Democrats' 2028 messaging:

"What's going to bring us to victory in the Senate and the House is going to be cost of living, and just in general, people's feeling of inability to actually feel comfortable with what they're making. I think what we do first is going to brand the Democrats going into 2028."

On matching Republicans' energy:

"In the military, […] there's escalation of force. And I think we have to calibrate […] everything we do to the escalation of force. So if you see them continue to move down these autocratic paths, then we have to match that. And then once we start seeing [Republicans] turn down and move down, then we can start coming back down. So that means we gerrymander to block their gerrymandering. […] Let's go to an even playing field that is more reminiscent of what we think of as the best of the Constitution. But if they continue to be assholes, then we have to match them. It's just that simple. Until we win, and then once we win - then we can figure out, how do we get back to a normal space in this country?"

11/7/25