Ruben Gallego, a democrat running against Kari Lake in Arizona’s U.S. Senate race, spent part of his Fourth of July in Winslow. A small crowd was there to ask questions, donate and show their support for the candidate. Gallego was also joined by Jonathan Nez who is running for District 2, which covers 60% of the state according to Tom O’Halloran, who used to occupy that congressional seat and was there to voice his support as well. Nez is the former president of the Navajo Nation and is now looking to represent a district that contains the state’s largest portion of tribal land.
One of the first things Gallego spoke about in his speech in Winslow on July 4, was of one of his best friends, who is from Shiprock, and how he began his connection to the tribal lands. He mentioned that when he finally came back after serving in the Marines he spent time there, which helped the healing process of coming back from war. He said that this is why he has served on the Indian Affairs subcommittee of the US House of Representatives since he first was sworn in. Gallego recalled working on bills for more police presence on reservations and bills for economic development on tribal land.
“There is no Arizona, without rural Arizona,” said Gallego in his speech at the Winslow Chamber of Commerce. He furthered this idea with how he wants to fight for rural Arizonans. First, he mentioned helping rural veterans have closer access to medical care without having to drive hours to the nearest Veterans Affairs clinic. He talked about how he worked on the broadband bill that is funding every home in the state to have access to high-speed internet. He touched on the housing crisis, and how rural Arizonans in desperate need for homes but also that it stops development in its tracks if no one is able to move there.
He spoke about investing in rural infrastructure. He told The Tribune that he would make sure that Winslow’s $100 million levee project stays in the federal budget every year. He also mentioned that he is currently helping the City of Winslow in their efforts to secure more than three million in funding for better drainage downtown.
After resident Sabrina Butler asked about his plan for railroaders and making sure their benefits and safety precautions stay in place. Gallego told Butler, “We have massive corporations like the BSNFs of the world and Union Pacifics of the world that would love to go to a one-man crew and eventually what they’ll do is go to fully automated. Do you want fully automated, nonhuman, driving with some pretty toxic stuff through your town? Absolutely not. Look at what happened in Palestine, Ohio.” He mentioned that he supports keeping these two-man crew regulations to ensure that not only the workers, but the inhabitants of the city’s they travel through are as well.
After the speech he was asked by The Tribune if he had a plan in place to help communities that are economically challenged by the closure of coal power plants. Gallego remarked, “We definitely need to make sure that for some of these areas there is high intensity manufacturing.” He pointed to Page, which is one of the communities facing this hardship, that it was able to get a factory to make manufactured homes there and that other communities need similar things. “We should be giving them direct pay” to help workers who lost their jobs until new opportunities can be presented in these areas. Comparing it to when the U.S. government subsidized farmers that were losing their jobs due to increased tariffs. He said his prioritization of rural infrastructure should also help this situation.
Gallego left Winslow with a promise that this won’t be the last they see of him and he will represent them as much as he does Maricopa County.
