Arizona Democrat Senator Ruben Gallego is taking steps to run for President in 2028, including a swing through South Carolina on Friday.

But his recent trip to speak with voters in the crucial 2028 state also comes just weeks after he hired crisis communicator and Biden-admin alum Andrew Bates.

Gallego visited South Carolina, a reliably red state that's now at the forefront of the Democrat presidential nominating contest, in an attempt to rally left-leaning grassroots activists. 

It's a far-flung plot that Democrats are hoping will pay off at the polls. 

At his events, Gallego touted his bipartisan chops - working with GOP legislators in Arizona to pass Medicaid expansion - and also noted that nearly 1 in 10 voters in 2024 backed both him and Trump at the polls. 

The Daily Mail attended Gallego's events in the state on Friday, speaking with Democratic voters who came to hear from him about whether the scandals of his closest friends could tank his chances in a future presidential election. 

Controversy has followed Gallego after two of his longtime House of Representatives colleagues and self-proclaimed friends were accused of sexual misconduct.

Prior to his election to the US Senate, Gallego was a member of the US House and one of three members of a 'Cool Kids clique' alongside Californians Eric Swalwell and Jimmy Gomez.

Gallego's association with Swalwell was also financial, as the two had previously run the 'Swallego Victory Fund,' as first reported by the Daily Mail in April. 

A Politico report released Sunday detailed how a significant portion of the PAC's money was spent on Super Bowl tickets in 2023, and also how Gallego had spent thousands in donor dollars on personal expenses, including child care and travel with his wife, children, and even their au pair.

The 'Swallego Victory Fund' PAC was disbanded earlier in the 2025-2026 electoral cycle, per FEC records. The PAC raised and spent just over $55,000 in the 2023-2024 cycle.

Gallego's association with Swalwell was also financial, as the two had previously run the 'Swallego Victory Fund,' as reported by the Daily Mail in April. 

A Politico report released Sunday detailed how a significant portion of the PAC's money was spent on Super Bowl tickets in 2023, and also how Gallego had spent thousands in donor dollars on personal expenses, including child care and travel with his wife, children, and even their au pair.

The 'Swallego Victory Fund' PAC was disbanded earlier in the 2025-2026 electoral cycle, per FEC records. The PAC raised and spent just over $55,000 in the 2023-2024 cycle.

Yet, most attendees who heard from Gallego on Friday did not seem put off by his connections to Swalwell.

'I am Christian, and I do believe in the redemption power of Jesus,' Amber Drummond, 43, from Greenville told the Daily Mail.

'Regardless of what you have done, everybody does need somebody in their corner to support with them, to pray with them, to remind them that they are not alone,' she added.

'Associating yourself with that person doesn't mean that you align with them, with what they have done. We are Christian and the bible reminds us to be a brother to one another,' Drummond concluded. 

A similar sentiment was shared by Eric Graben, a Greenville attorney in his 60s who noted 'anyone in politics has friends who fall short, and need to be getting out of politics,' he noted, before adding 'most particularly our President [Trump].

'I don't write anybody off, and neither does Jesus Christ,' Graben added.

Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida claimed in April that Gallego was also facing accusations of misconduct, something that he characterized as 'right-wing conspiracy theories.' The Daily Mail reached out to Luna's office inquiring about the status of the investigations. 

At Gallego's second stop of the day in Union, Democratic nominee for South Carolina's 5th Congressional District Mallory Dittmer, 41, did note that if elected to the House later this year she would be careful with who she associates in Washington.

'It seems that this was going on, a lot of people knew about it, and that is extremely disappointing,' Dittmer noted.

The purpose of the South Carolina Democrat Party's (SCDP) 'On The Road' tour stops with Gallego on Friday was to energize Democrats in Republican areas to realize their political power.

When a voter asked him what he was running for during the South Carolina swing, Gallego didn't explicitly mention a 2028 bid. 

Instead, he coyly replied: 'I'm running for... well, I'm right here to talk to Democrats about running for office, but I'm currently a US Senator from Arizona.'

While his visit to a cafe in the Upstate South Carolina city of Greenville was well attended, his second stop of the day in Union, a sleepy rural town over an hour away from the first visit and over 30 minutes down winding country roads away from an interstate, left much to be desired.

Out of a room of about 20 attendees, it was hard to pick out a regular voter, as most of the seats were filed by SCDP staff, Gallego's team, and local elected officials, candidates, and a few grassroots leaders.

Swalwell dropped out of the California gubernatorial race after a sexual assault allegation from a former staffer forced him to quit.

He has been accused of sexual misconduct by at least five women, including a former staffer who alleged that Swalwell, who is married, raped her twice when she was too intoxicated to consent, in 2019 and 2024. She is one of four women who have made allegations against the Democrat.

Swalwell announced he was suspending his gubernatorial campaign after the accusations came to light, saying he was 'deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I've made in my past,' while disputing what he called 'false allegations' against him.

California Representative Jimmy Gomez, another past Gallego associate, is being probed by the House Ethics Committee, after a report that he kissed a much younger staffer.

The father-of-one admitted that he made 'mistakes' that had 'caused real pain' to his wife of 15 years, but did not violate any laws or ethics rules.

Gallego, Arizona's junior senator, held a press conference in his office back in April  during which he claimed he had no knowledge of Swalwell's inappropriate behavior, even though he had heard that Swalwell was 'flirty.'

He broke down in tears at one point, insisting that he 'trusted' his friend.

'And it hurts, the fact that he hurt a lot of people, and it pisses me off that now we all have to deal with all of his BS, his family, the poor victims that are still going to have to seek justice,' Gallego said.

Turning on his longtime friend and colleague, he said that Swalwell 'became very good at being a predator.'

Gallego also noted that Swalwell 'lied to all of us' during his time on the House Judiciary Committee, where he was an active voice in the push to impeach Donald Trump.