by Matthew Holloway | Aug 13, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
In his first town hall upon returning to Arizona from his visit to Iowa, where he was booed mercilessly, Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego was hosted by the Apache Junction Public Library on Monday. During the townhall, he spoke with veterans following a tour of the Cobre Valley Regional Medical Center in Globe.
According to AZCentral, Gallego was met with natural questions on his presidential aspirations, typically indicated by Senators taking jaunts to Iowa and New Hampshire, to which the Phoenix Democrat offered a boilerplate answer: “We’ve got to focus on Arizona.”
When pressed by a reporter, Gallego replied, “There is no presidential priority at all. The only priority is to make sure I’m doing the best for the state. Sometimes that might mean going to get help from other states, but the most important thing is delivering for us here.”
However, when confronted with more difficult questions, Gallego seemed less willing to engage, as indicated in video footage from X commentator ‘Veterans of Arizona.’
In a statement to AZ Free News, ‘Veterans for Arizona’ described his contentious interaction with the Senator saying, “I wanted to ask [S]enator Gallego some questions on his policies. When Ruben started going off about him helping veterans through the [PACT] Act….I realized he wasn’t going to call on me[,] so I decided to tell him that we couldn’t trust him because he’s previously voted against fully funding the VA[.]”
He asked, “[W]hy did he vote against Sam Brown’s nomination[?] [A]nd why wouldn’t he debate Kari Lake[?]”
“I was rushing these questions because his staff circled me and escorted me out,” he explained. “If Ruben wanted to make amends with vets he could’ve said: ‘[W]ait, what are your questions[?]’ and addressed each concern[,] but Ruben’s never been one for confrontation.”
In the Arizona Republic’s reporting, Gallego is described as “seem[ing] to embrace,” the “live-wire quality,” of engaging with the public, however, the prompt removal of ‘Veterans for Arizona’ by the Senator’s staffers seems to belie that notion. The Senator didn’t engage with the concerned veteran, but instead blithely ignored his questions as the man was unceremoniously ousted from the Apache Junction Library’s Opal Room.
Perhaps, after the embarrassing showing in Iowa, Gallego is less inclined to address the more aggressive discourse of his constituents.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Jun 10, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
In a statement released via X on Sunday, the group ‘Veterans for Arizona’ asked United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins why allegations against Democrat Senator Ruben Gallego have not been investigated. The allegations stem from prominent 2023 reports that Gallego claimed both his residences in Arizona and Washington, D.C., as his primary residence in order to benefit from special VA mortgage rates granted as a benefit to U.S. Veterans.
During Gallego’s 2024 U.S. Senate Campaign, Politico stated that Gallego purchased his Washington, D.C., home near the Capitol claiming that it was his primary residence on documentation for a VA home loan, while the then-Congressman and his wife also claimed their Phoenix home as their primary residence.
Citing loan documents the outlet obtained, Politico reported that Gallego’s campaign officially maintained that his primary residence is located in Arizona, as required by election law, despite the documentation of his Washington, D.C., home.
In June 2023, after the reports initially appeared in Politico, the National Republican Senate Committee raised the concern that “Gallego signed loan documents making Washington, D.C., his primary residence to obtain favorable mortgage rates, while at the same time taking advantage of homeowner tax breaks and voting in Arizona. This raises questions about whether Gallego committed fraud on his loan application.”
The NRSC also noted that the revelation of Gallego’s alleged mortgage fraud came to light just weeks after his links to a bank targeting immigrants were exposed by AZCentral. The bank was later shut down according to the outlet.
NRSC spokesman Tate Mitchell told the Arizona Republic, “If Ruben Gallego signed fraudulent documents, that will be a serious issue for him in the election — and potentially with the authorities,” Mitchell said. “National Democrats are in a serious pickle as they choose between their incumbent, Kyrsten Sinema, and accused fraudster Ruben Gallego.”
“Legally, Gallego doesn’t have to live in his district to serve in Congress, this isn’t like legislative offices or most county offices,” one election law expert told the Arizona Daily Independent. However, they added, “His campaign does have to consider the optics and potential legality of what he’s doing. Claiming two primary residences in two different states to obtain favorable terms and to meet the requirements of the loans, even though both claims can’t be simultaneously true, isn’t something the average person does or even thinks to do. So it’s another Washington D.C., elite that laws don’t apply to, running for office claiming to be for the average Joes.”
Despite the allegations against him, Gallego was successful in his Senate bid and went on to become a harsh critic of VA Secretary Collins, with the Senator announcing plans to block all VA nominations in April until Collins drops plans to make staffing cuts to the VA in accordance with the Trump administration’s demands for government efficiency. Gallego reiterated the demand in May in a letter co-signed by fellow Arizona Democrats Senator Mark Kelly, and Representatives Greg Stanton (AZ-04) and Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03).
Collins refuted Gallego’s claims however under questioning by Congressman Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ08) during a House Committee on Veterans Affairs hearing on May 15th, telling Hamadeh, “We’re not looking at doctors, we’re not looking at nurses. We’re looking at issues where we have payroll that’s being done at 60 locations, that was supposed to be centralized a long time ago, with hundreds of employees that we’re now looking to consolidate to see how we can run it efficiently and more cost effectively.”
He added, “We don’t need them all over the place, we don’t need the issues we have with human resources being run in every location, again, with hundreds of employees.”
“Frontline workers should be the happiest at the VA right now because we’re going to be freeing them up to do their job and not get bogged down with paperwork,” Collins noted per the Arizona Daily Independent.
As of this report, no investigation has been announced against Senator Gallego pertaining to the allegations raised by the NRSC following the Politico report.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
