(The Center Square) — U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego is coming to Iowa, but says running for president isn’t on his mind.
For decades, Iowa held the nation’s first caucuses in presidential races, but the Arizona Democrat’s focus this summer is on his opposition to the recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act. He announced he will talk about it during a visit next month to the Iowa State Fair.
“Iowa, I’m headed your way. Republicans in Congress slashed your health care and hiked your costs to bankroll billionaires. Join me August 8-9. Let’s fight back,” the senator said Wednesday on X.
According to the Iowa Democrats, besides visiting the state fair, Gallego will host a town hall in the Quad Cities, an area consisting of five cities along the border between Iowa and Illinois. The Iowa Democrats said Gallego will be speaking “with Iowans about how Republicans’ big, bad budget-busting bill will impact our communities.”
The Hill reported Gallego will focus on talking to Iowans about his belief that U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Cedar Rapids, prioritized billionaires over Iowans in the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
After the Senate passed the Big Beautiful Bill, Gallego said Americans were “worse off” because of it.
In recent months, Gallego has been interacting with Democrats in different states. The senator traveled to Pennsylvania in May to host a town hall in Bucks County. That’s where he said every elected official has thought about running for president, but he wasn’t thinking about doing it currently.
Last week, Gallego participated in a virtual town hall event with the Alaska Democratic Party.
Even though the first-time senator said he wasn’t considering a presidential run, politicians seeking the White House have historically made stops at the Iowa State Fair. Future presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden all stopped at the fair.
Four times since 1976, a president who won the Iowa caucus also won the presidential election: Carter, Obama, George W. Bush and Trump.
Iowa used to be the first state for both political parties to hand out their presidential delegates. However, Democrats changed this policy in 2024 when South Carolina became the first state to determine Democratic presidential delegates. The Democratic Party made this change this after the 2020 Iowa caucuses, which experienced delays in reporting results. (Like most states, South Carolina selects its presidential delegates through a primary election.)
Gallego is considered a “rising star in the Democratic Party,” according to Politico.
In 2024, Gallego defeated Republican candidate Kari Lake in Arizona’s Senate race by almost 81,000 votes. He succeeded U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an independent who caucused with the Democrats and decided against seeking re-election.
During his first year in office, Gallego has introduced a variety of bills, such as legislation helping areas financially affected by illegal immigration and making it easier to hire Border Patrol agents.
Emerson College released a poll in June that said former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg was the favorite to be the Democratic presidential nominee. Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Republican President Donald Trump in November, came in second, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom was in third.
Gallego did not appear in the top 15 list of candidates.
