AZ-SEN: Rep. Ruben Gallego, averting primary bloodbath, won't run for the Senate [View all]

[RandySF]

Rep. Ruben Gallego will not run for the U.S. Senate in 2020’s special election, he told The Arizona Republic on Monday, clearing the path for retired astronaut Mark Kelly to take on incumbent Republican Sen. Martha McSally without a potentially bruising primary fight.

Gallego’s decision will disappoint progressive Democrats, who represent the left flank of the party and are especially hostile toward President Donald Trump.

Those voters wanted Gallego, 39, to wage a fight against Kelly, who is presenting himself as a centrist Democratic candidate who will make decisions based on data and science, not partisan politics or ideology.

By removing himself from running, Gallego, D-Ariz., also dashes GOP hopes of a competitive Democratic primary race that could have freed McSally, R-Ariz., to focus on her own campaign message while Gallego and Kelly battled it out for their party's nomination.

In Gallego, Republicans saw an opportunity to wound Kelly by forcing him to answer for the more liberal positions that reflect the party's general direction.


“I don’t want to engage in a bitter primary all the way until the general election, and then turn around and try to run, whether it’s me or Kelly, against McSally in a year when the Democrats need to win the Senate seat and take the state,” Gallego told The Republic. “It’s just not in the best interest of the state or the Democratic Party to be engaging in that. … If Republicans are excited to see a spirited and nasty primary, they’re going to have to look somewhere else because I’m not going to take part in that.”



https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2019/03/25/arizona-us-rep-ruben-gallego-wont-run-u-s-senate-seat/3271786002/