Kari Lake: Opponent Ruben Gallego Made ‘Bizarre’ Demand For Her To Apologize About His Divorce 

Kari Lake: Opponent Ruben Gallego Made ‘Bizarre’ Demand For Her To Apologize About His Divorce 

by | Oct 20, 2024 | News

By Staff Reporter |

GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake’s team again rebuffed efforts by her Democratic opponent, Ruben Gallego, to blame her for public interest over the unsealing of his divorce records. 

The Washington Free Beacon filed the lawsuit to make Gallego’s divorce records public earlier this year. The media outlet succeeded in spite of several appeals. Over 400 pages of records were released on Thursday in what many expected to be an “October surprise.” 

Lake capitalized on The Washington Free Beacon’s lawsuit to unseal her opponent’s divorce records. The GOP candidate speculated that the records would contain damning details about Gallego’s character. Following the unsealing of their divorce records, Ruben and his ex-wife, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, issued a joint statement demanding that Lake apologize for putting a spotlight on their past divorce. 

“We demand an apology from Kari Lake for lying about our family and the circumstances of our divorce,” said the Gallegos. “She will stop at nothing to score a cheap political point — even if it means endangering the privacy and well-being of our young son.”

The privacy of Gallego’s daughter with his new wife may be another matter. Gallego posted, and then deleted, a tweet on Thursday using a picture of his toddler daughter to advocate for abortion. 

“I’m a dad running for Senate to give my kids and yours the best future possible,” wrote Gallego in the deleted tweet. “That means a world where our daughters have abortion rights.”

In a statement on behalf of the campaign, Lake’s senior advisor, Caroline Wren, called Gallego’s behavior and demand of an apology “bizarre” since Lake had “nothing to do” with the lawsuit. Lake’s team called the divorce records “shocking” given his heavy campaigning as an advocate for women on the issue of abortion. The Lake campaign based their assessment on the timing of Gallego’s filing for divorce, as well as his request for attorney’s fees from his pregnant wife. 

“We do find the revelations from the divorce records to be shocking, especially considering Ruben Gallego is spending millions on advertising claiming to want to protect women, yet he served his unsuspecting wife with divorce papers when she was days away from giving birth, and even demanded she pay his attorney’s fees!” stated the Lake campaign. 

The Lake campaign also argued that Gallego’s lack of reliability with his ex-wife made him unfit to serve in the Senate. 

“If Ruben Gallego will turn his back on his pregnant wife days before she gives birth, he will turn his back on Arizona,” stated the Lake campaign. 

A little over a week before Christmas 2016, Gallego filed for divorce from Phoenix mayor Kate Gallego, who was well into her ninth month of pregnancy and still a Phoenix councilwoman at the time.

Apart from Gallego’s timing of his divorce filing and his request for attorney’s fees, many believe the court records failed to deliver the anticipated “October surprise.”

Yavapai Superior Court Judge John Napper, who ruled for the unsealing of the documents, said in a video obtained by 12 News that the Gallego records were “one of the most garden-variety divorce files” he’d ever come across. Napper predicted that few, if any, would be impressed by the records. 

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Appeals Court: Senate Candidate Ruben Gallego’s Divorce Records Must Be Unsealed

Appeals Court: Senate Candidate Ruben Gallego’s Divorce Records Must Be Unsealed

by | Oct 13, 2024 | News

By Staff Reporter |

The Arizona Court of Appeals ordered the unsealing of divorce records between Ruben Gallego, Senate candidate and congressman, and his ex-wife, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego. 

The Washington Free Beacon, a right-leaning media outlet, sued for access to the records. 

On Thursday, Presiding Judge Brian Furuya ruled in a memorandum decision that the burden remains on the Gallegos to demonstrate why records shouldn’t be unsealed. Furuya rejected the Gallegos’ argument that the records contained mention of their son, and therefore should be sealed completely. Furuya ruled that redactions of the record protecting the interests of their son were sufficient enough.

“To begin, the State of Arizona presumes court records are available to the public,” said Furuya. “[T]he party opposing the unsealing ‘must show that overriding circumstances continue to exist or that other grounds provide a sufficient basis for keeping the record sealed.’”

The Yavapai Superior Court said as much in its ruling for the unsealing of the divorce records as well. That court found that the original order sealing the records was improper, and ordered the Gallegos to submit redaction requests. The Gallegos complied, but then took issue with the rejected redactions and appealed.

Furuya had no criticisms for the superior court’s ruling.

“Upon review, we hold the court properly exercised its discretion by narrowly tailoring what is to be withheld from public view for those legitimate purposes,” said Furuya. 

Ruben Gallego filed for divorce in 2016 when his wife was nine months pregnant. The Gallegos finalized their divorce the next year after their son arrived. 

Last year, he told the Washington Post that PTSD was to blame for his divorce. He claimed that PTSD, acquired from serving in Iraq, caused him to drink and smoke too much, and he was prone to have “extreme outbursts.” Ruben Gallego also said he “had an addiction to artificial points of success” like running for office. Essentially, his ex-wife’s pregnancy was too much to handle on top of his professional goals and self-professed emotional issues with anxiety, moodiness, and survivor’s guilt.

The Washington Free Beacon sued earlier this year for access to those divorce records, arguing that Gallego’s race for the Senate necessitated full public transparency over his divorce with the Phoenix mayor. The outlet cited Ruben Gallego’s own remarks from his Washington Post interview, questioning whether his admission to “extreme outbursts” was in reference to physical threats or violence.

“The people of Arizona deserve to know the man who is getting down on one knee before they accept his proposal,” stated the Washington Free Beacon.

The outlet also noted that neither of the Gallegos lived in the county in which the divorce was filed, though state law requires couples to file in the county of their residence. 

The Washington Free Beacon also reported that Gallego privately married lobbyist Sydney Barron in 2019, but he claimed in 2021 that he had just proposed to her that year and went on to have a public wedding months later. 

Gallego is running against Republican candidate Kari Lake.

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