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WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Arizona Democrat Ruben Gallego is promoting Republican backing for his Senate campaign as the congressman works to assemble a winning coalition in the swing state.
A list released Sunday of 39 Republican and independent supporters of his campaign includes moderate Republicans and some former Republicans who held elected office or other roles in business or politics. Several are former aides to the late Sen. John McCain, the famed Arizona Republican and onetime prisoner of war who was known for occasionally bucking his party.
Gallego's Republican opponent, Kari Lake, has criticized McCain in the past and once suggested he was a “loser.”
Democrats have made inroads in Arizona after decades of GOP dominance. While Republicans have more registered voters in the state, President Joe Biden, Sen. Mark Kelly, Gov. Katie Hobbs and other Democrats have cobbled together narrow victories by holding their party together, dominating among independents and getting support from an outsize share of Republicans who dislike the direction of the GOP under Donald Trump.
According to AP VoteCast, about 6 in 10 independent and about 1 in 10 Republican voters supported Biden in 2020. Similar shares supported Kelly in 2020.
In 2022, about two-thirds of independents and 13% of Republican voters supported Kelly, the survey of the American electorate found. Similarly, about 6 in 10 independent voters and about 1 in 10 Republican voters supported Hobbs that year.
Gallego announced his GOP outreach the same day Vice President Kamala Harris launched her own “ Republicans for Harris ” group to seek support from conservatives put off by Trump's candidacy. Her campaign released the names of nearly three dozen supporters in Arizona that had some overlap with Gallego's list but was not a copy.
Lake is a former television news anchor and one of Trump's most prominent supporters. Like Trump, she has promoted false and debunked theories of election fraud.
She says Gallego is a liberal Democrat who is out of step with Arizona’s moderate voters. Lake says the congressman votes in lockstep with Biden and Harris, supported legislation that worsened inflation and wants to eliminate the Senate filibuster to enact a liberal agenda.
Gallego, who served as a Marine in Iraq, is emphasizing his military service and financially humble upbringing as he looks to expand his stature beyond the safely Democratic district in Phoenix that he has represented since 2015. He says he is not afraid to push Biden when he disagrees with the administration’s policies, particularly around the U.S.-Mexico border. Gallego views the filibuster, which requires 60 Senate votes to pass most legislation, as a barrier to efforts to protect voting rights, abortion rights and other priorities.
Among those Republicans endorsing Gallego is Mesa Mayor John Giles, who has been a vocal supporter of Democrats running against Trump and his allies, including Biden and Kelly.
“I cannot in good conscience stand on the sidelines while extremists like Kari Lake, who have hijacked our party for the sake of personal gain, undermine the very fabric of what makes America exceptional," Giles said in a statement released by Gallego's campaign.
Gallego is emphasizing his military service as a Marine who faced difficult combat in Iraq, a biography with the potential to appeal across party lines.
“Like my former boss, Ruben has spent decades serving his country and state,” said Paul Hickman, a former state director for McCain who described himself as a lifelong Republican, in a statement released by Gallego's campaign.
Lake's GOP primary rival, Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, earned about 40% of the vote Tuesday despite being outspent 5-to-1 by Lake, giving hope to Democrats that her Republican support remains soft.
When she accepted victory in the primary, Lake made a point of reaching out to those who voted against her, a stark contrast to her 2022 run for governor when she went after McCain and other Republicans who ran afoul of the right.
“Republicans might have differences but agree far more than not,” a Lake spokesperson said in response to Gallego’s announcement Sunday. “Ruben Gallego supports Kamala Harris 100 percent of the time.”
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Associated Press polling editor Amelia Thomson DeVeaux contributed to this report.