Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) was cleared of campaign finance and sexual misconduct accusations by one entity, but now faces a probe into his campaign finances by another.
The Senate Ethics Committee issued a letter to Gallego on Friday notifying him that he was cleared of accusations made by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL-13) concerning sexual and financial misconduct.
The committee advised it had reviewed statements from individuals identified in the complaint, Federal Election Commission (FEC) reports, the 2025 Senate secretary’s expenditure report, the House of Representatives clerk’s expenditure reports, the House of Representatives reports of privately sponsored travel, and information provided by Gallego to the committee.
Committee members include Sens. James Lankford (R-OK), chairman; Christopher Coons (D-DE), vice chair; James Risch (R-ID); Brian Schatz (D-HI); Deb Fischer (R-NE); and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH).
In response to the committee letter, Gallego accused Paulina Luna on Monday of being one of many “far-right activists” spreading “right-wing conspiracies.”
The dismissal by the Ethics Committee reaffirms what I have said about these accusations from the beginning: they were right-wing conspiracies peddled by far-right activists like Anna Paulina Luna, the White House, and their allies.
I look forward to an apology from Rep. Luna…
— Senator Ruben Gallego (@SenRubenGallego) June 29, 2026
Relief for the potential 2028 presidential candidate was short-lived. The Department of Justice (DOJ) also had an announcement on Monday wherein it revealed Gallego was under investigation for those alleged campaign finance violations the ethics committee had cleared.
According to federal campaign finance records, Gallego allegedly spent campaign funds on amenities and extravagances for himself and his family. An anonymous source first reported on by Politico accused the senator of treating his campaign cash like a “personal slush fund” for “a luxury lifestyle.”
One widely scrutinized expenditure concerned Gallego’s attendance at the 2023 Super Bowl with his former best friend: ex-California congressman and gubernatorial candidate, Eric Swalwell. Gallego and Swalwell hosted a joint fundraising committee event in which they dropped tens of thousands of dollars on brunch, tickets, and other watch party arrangements for themselves and select special guests.
Gallego has reportedly spent around $20,000 in campaign funds on childcare over the past seven years (nearly half came from this past year alone), and tens of thousands more on trips to vacation destinations including Miami for his wife’s birthday, the Caribbean for the birthday of his wife’s boss, and Nantucket and Puerto Rico as well.
Twice in 2025, Gallego used campaign funds to fly his family and an au pair to Disney properties.
Another anonymous source — either the same source quoted by Politico or another source — toldThe Daily Beast that Gallego arranged at least the Miami trip under the guise of fundraising but truly intended as a celebration for his wife’s birthday.
The New York Times recently reported that, while running for Senate back in 2024, Gallego allowed his wife to drive an SUV leased for campaign purposes.
Gallego and his spokespeople have defended the au pair as allowable childcare reimbursements under FEC rules, and some of the events criticized as luxury outings like the jet-setting trips and 2023 Super Bowl watch party as valid fundraising endeavors.
“Trump is targeting Senator Gallego while the most weaponized Department of Justice in history is turning a blind eye to Trump’s unprecedented corruption that’s raising costs for families, and instead targeting anyone who gets in their way — like the Federal Reserve, members of Congress doing their oversight duty, and now Senator Gallego,” read a recent statement from a Gallego spokesperson.
“Because I’m not a millionaire (I’m one of the least wealthy members of Congress), every month is a game of childcare, travel, and scheduling balancing,” said Gallego in a post to X earlier this month. “And because of my schedule and the laws passed that allow for it, I will at times bring my wife and children with me to these retreats and fundraisers. Are these at nice venues? Yes, it’s where the donors are, and it’s part of campaigning. I know people have opinions on that, but that’s the nature of the campaign system we have in our country.”
Let me clear the air on some of these stories swirling around. The FEC has stated that childcare may be reimbursed. There is a simple reason: we want Congress to look like America. Not just people without children, those with grown children, or those from wealthy backgrounds.
Federal campaign finance records revealed that Sen. Ruben Gallego spent campaign cash for game tickets, child care, and luxury outings for the 2023 Super Bowl in Arizona.
Gallego tapped a joint campaign accord with former California Rep. Eric Swalwell to attend the Super Bowl, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records and an anonymous source reported on by Politico.
Gallego and Swalwell were best friends for about a decade, but that relationship ended with the sexual misconduct and assault claims raised against Swalwell earlier this year amid his short-lived campaign for California governor.
That anonymous source claimed that Gallego treated campaign money like “his personal slush fund […] to live a luxury lifestyle.”
The Super Bowl took place several weeks after Gallego announced his campaign to take over for then-departing Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. Gallego and Swalwell gathered up key staff and donors to attend the game, claiming it as a fundraising party for their newly formed (now defunct) joint fundraising committee, “Swallego Victory Fund.”
The highest donations to that fund were all made in the days leading up to Gallego’s Super Bowl watch party.
Top donors gave $5,000 to $10,000 each: Patrick Smith, Axon CEO; Glen Fuller, Mackenzie Capital managing director and COO; Karl OBergh, former Ardurra civil engineer, current director of engineering with True North Studio; David Shimmon, Ichor Systems CEO; Julio Fuentes, SSA executive director based out of Puerto Rico; Miguel Colom-Mena, Nagnoi co-founder; and Wendy and Dina Lapolt, RCA vice president of promotion and attorney, respectively.
FOIAzona outlined campaign finance activity by Swalwell that further elaborated the nature of that Super Bowl party. FOIAzona has been building a timeline of Gallego and Swalwell’s relationship going back to the beginning about a decade ago.
In the days leading up to the Super Bowl, Swalwell purchased two $3,300 fundraising event tickets for Ian Lev, founder and CEO of Apollo Labs, an independent third-party laboratory for licensed cannabis operators based out of Scottsdale, and Scott Rouillard, director of global payroll at Graebel Companies, a relocation management company based out of Cave Creek.
Tickets to the joining committee fundraiser cost $5,000, and another $1,000 for a brunch, per an invitation reviewed by Politico.
Of the $56,500 the two raised, over $37,000 went to event tickets and brunch, leaving the joint fundraising committee with about $19,000.
In addition to the 2023 Super Bowl spending, Gallego has spent campaign cash in other ways that critics argue violate FEC rules. Gallego has spent more than $18,000 in funds from his political action committee and campaign on child care since 2019.
Gallego blamed his spending choices on inflation.
“With the rising costs of child care and the burden it has on the budgets of American families, Democrats and Republicans in Congress and the White House alike regularly travel with their wives and children, as is permitted by the FEC,” said Gallego.
Earlier this month the senator hired Andrew Bates, former deputy press secretary for former President Joe Biden, to handle crisis communications concerning his longtime friendship with Swalwell and a sexual misconduct complaint against him filed with the Ethics Committee.
Gallego has publicly expressed a desire to run for president in 2028, and has been traveling across the country in what appears to be early preparations for a campaign announcement.
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There are plenty of problems with the Arizona Commerce Authority. Since its inception in 2011, criticisms were raised concerning its freewheeling powers to dole out taxpayer money with practically no legislative oversight and broad exemptions from important guardrails such as the prohibition of using outside counsel (rather than the Attorney General’s office.) These issues have resurfaced over the years in critical Auditor General reports that have highlighted the insufficient reporting and record keeping for the administration of grants and awards provided by the agency to private businesses. This led to a mere 2-year extension of the agency in 2016, and a controversial reauthorization in 2018 when Republicans and Democrats alike banged the table for reforms. And most recently, the agency has come under fire by the Attorney General herself, for unconstitutional gifts in the way of wining and dining and Super Bowl tickets for CEOs.
Despite consistent criticism across the aisle and over the years, the ACA has evaded any real substantial reforms. That could very well change this year.
There now seems to be bipartisan interest in reining in an unaccountable agency with a $226M budget and a multi-million-dollar slush fund…
A contentious fight is brewing in the Arizona legislature, the possible reauthorization of the Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA). Governor Hobbs has made the reauthorization a top priority of her administration this session, mentioning it in her State of the State address. But the debate has an ironic element considering the history of its inception.
In 2011, the state was crawling out of a crippling recession, having lost literally hundreds of thousands of jobs and even selling off the state Capitol buildings to dig out of a deficit. The legislature, in collaboration with the Brewer Administration, introduced an omnibus bill sold as a “jobs package” which refashioned the bureaucratic Department of Commerce into the Arizona Commerce Authority, and incorporated both new targeted tax credit programs and incentives, as well as phased in corporate income and commercial property tax cuts.
Democrats a Decade Ago Opposed the ACA
The bill at the time was uniformly opposed by Democrats, including then Representative Katie Hobbs. Republicans mostly coalesced around the bill, with a handful of key conservatives voting in opposition of the legislation, largely in protest of the corporate welfare and multi-million-dollar “deal closing” fund with no legislative oversight. For those unfamiliar with the deal closing fund, it is a large pot of money appropriated to the Director of the Commerce Authority to throw at corporations to convince them to relocate to Arizona.
After the ACA was passed and signed into law, it would seem that only a few conservative voices and the Club itself would prove prophetic at the lack of oversight and inevitable gift clause violations, which is a constitutional protection from the government subsidizing private industry…
The 2023 Super Bowl may be long over, but political fallout is continuing into the start of the next football season.
On Thursday night, veteran Arizona reporter Dennis Welch and one of his colleagues released a story that “according to public records, the Arizona Office of Tourism gifted the Governor’s Office twelve tickets (to the Super Bowl)” and that “members of Hobbs’ staff used the remaining half dozen… worth tens of thousands of dollars.”
Two of the six Hobbs’ staffers who reportedly received tickets to the Super Bowl in Glendale, Arizona are no longer with the office, having departed earlier this year.
The Arizona’s Family journalists shared the existence of A.R.S. 41-1232.08, which bars “elected officials and public servants from accepting (the free tickets).” The statute reads, “A state officer or state employee shall not accept an expenditure or single expenditure for entertainment from a principal, designated lobbyist, authorized lobbyist, lobbyist for compensation, public body, designated public lobbyist or authorized public lobbyist or any other person acting on that person’s behalf.”
Republican legislators were quick to react to the breaking news, The Arizona Freedom Caucus posted, “Corruption in Governor Hobbs’ administration! Katie Hobbs’ staff accepted free Super Bowl tickets estimated to cost $7,000 per ticket. AZ has laws that make it ILLEGAL for Public Servants and Elected Officials to accept gifts over $25.00 in value. This is flat out corruption.”
Senate President Pro Tempore T.J. Shope wrote, “I purchased my nosebleed seats and these folks go for free in I’m sure way better seats than what I paid for? Cool scam for them eh Dennis Welch? Rules for thee and none for me is the mantra of the Governor Hobbs’ Administration I suppose…”
I purchased my nosebleed seats and these folks go for free in I’m sure way better seats than what I paid for? Cool scam for them eh @dennis_welch? Rules for thee and none for me is the mantra of the @GovernorHobbs Administration I suppose… https://t.co/vIeyFt2MdF
Shope also responded to an account that had attempted to argue that the Governor’s Office reported actions were “perks of being in a high office,” saying, “Huh breaking the law is NOT ‘one of the perks’ of being in high office, nor should it be. Why would I want to break the law when I can pay for them honestly. I’m sure that’s difficult to understand for some but being ethical is something three generations of elected Shope’s have had in common. These are the people educating your kids folks…people who think people in high office have a right to break the law.”
Huh breaking the law is NOT “one of the perks” of being in high office, nor should it be. Why would I want to break the law when I can pay for them honestly. I’m sure that’s difficult to understand for some but being ethical is something three generations of elected Shope’s have… https://t.co/PYkUR6Z4bI
In their report, the journalists revealed that “the previous Governor, Doug Ducey, received twenty tickets to the 2015 Super Bowl in Glendale,” and that they were told “Ducey paid face value for his ticket and distributed the remaining tickets to veterans groups.” The journalists added that “at the time, Ducey prohibited his staff from taking free tickets over concerns it was against the law.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
