A Democrat congressman who supposedly opposes lobbying is facing backlash on his campaign for dumping his nine-month-pregnant wife for a Washington, D.C., lobbyist.
On Friday, the Win It Back Political Action Committee (PAC) released a scathing advertisement against Senate candidate and current Congressman Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) — pointing out that he had “dumped his wife when she was nine months pregnant” for a lobbyist.
“Ruben Gallego wants to be your U.S. senator, but he doesn’t want you to know who he really is: The guy who dumped his wife when she was nine months pregnant, trading her in for a newer model, a lobbyist in Washington, DC. Tell Ruben to stop blocking the release of his divorce files,” the narrator explained in the ad, which was obtained by Breitbart News.
The ad came after the Washington Free Beacon filed a motion in January demanding that Gallego’s divorce records be unsealed. Like the majority of states, Arizona allows court records to be accessible to the public, even those related to divorces. However, as the Free Beacon noted, “in the Gallegos’ case, the entire docket is under seal, something incredibly unusual in a state where the sealing of information, if it happens at all, is typically limited to specific sensitive information, like the identifying information of minor children.”
The outlet went on to point out that despite burying his divorce records somehow, Gallego has made the end of his marriage a major part of his political story — even going to far as to delve into the issue during a lengthy interview with the Washington Post in March 2023, blaming the divorce on PTSD from serving in Iraq and telling the left-wing outlet that PTSD caused him to drink too much, smoke too much, and become prone to “extreme outbursts.” At the time of these issues, Gallego was serving in Congress.
Meanwhile, despite marrying the woman that he left his pregnant wife for, lobbyist Sydney Barron, Gallego has repeatedly tried to paint himself as anti-lobbying. According to a February report from the Washington Free Beacon, Gallego claimed in a fundraising email that he would “not be on the hook” to lobbyists or special interests if he is elected to the Senate.
This is an obvious lie considering the fact that Gallego has voted for 38 different bills that his wife lobbied for as director of government advocacy for the National Association of Realtors.
His opponent, Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake, also pointed this out in a post on X in February, adding: “In turn, [Gallego’s wife’s] group has lobbied for 17 bills that Gallego has either sponsored or cosponsored, donated $34,000 to Ruben’s campaign, & sent Gallego and his wife on luxurious all-expense-paid vacations. Ruben Gallego says he’s not ‘on the hook’ with lobbyists. He’s literally in bed with one.”
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Since 2019, @RubenGallego has voted for 38 bills for which his wife, the director of government advocacy at the National Association of Realtors, has lobbied.
In turn, her group has lobbied for 17 bills that Gallego has either sponsored or cosponsored, donated $34,000 to… pic.twitter.com/FuIQeBWFMv
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) February 28, 2024
Lake has also called him out for abandoning his pregnant wife, arguing that Gallego needs to allow his divorce records to be unsealed because the “people have a right to know what Ruben has done & who Ruben really is.”
Ruben Gallego abandoned his wife when she was 9 months pregnant with his first born.
He served her with divorce papers and ran-off with a DC lobbyist.A judge recently ruled Ruben can’t keep his divorce records hidden from the public— now Ruben’s in a panic trying to keep them… pic.twitter.com/vYKEYh8tIk
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) August 12, 2024
