Sources told the newspaper the consensual relationships with aides to Texas Democrats took place during the Arizona senator’s decade in the House — and that the Senate Ethics Committee was likely unaware of them when it dismissed a complaint against him last month
Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego, viewed as a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2028, engaged in sexual relationships with at least two House staffers, according to a report by the New York Post citing multiple unnamed sources. The newspaper said the 46-year-old admitted to the relationships — both with aides to Texas Democrats — to one source, while a third person confirmed one of them. Both are said to have been consensual and to have occurred during his decade representing Phoenix in the House of Representatives. Gallego’s office and the two staffers did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
Sources told the paper it is believed the relationships took place while Gallego was unmarried. One source described them as part of a broader “pattern of mistakes and missteps and judgment calls”, pointing to the imbalanced power dynamics of an elected official dating staffers; one of the women was in her 20s and much younger than Gallego at the time.
Relationships between lawmakers and staffers who work for their colleagues are generally permitted under congressional rules, provided there are no additional allegations such as harassment, although a push is under way to ban them outright.
A Democratic operative who has interacted with Gallego told The Post she found the news “not surprising”. “I have witnessed firsthand his very flirtatious nature after a couple of drinks,” she said. “Maybe he thinks he’s being charming? I don’t know.”
Ethics committee ‘looked in the wrong place’
Last month, the Senate Ethics Committee dismissed a complaint brought against Gallego, who was elected to the Senate in 2024, by Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida. Her complaint had alleged campaign finance violations and sexual misconduct.
According to an insider quoted by The Post this week, the panel — chaired by Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford — “didn’t ask” about Gallego’s relationships with the staffers, likely because it was unaware of them, and instead “focused squarely on what Luna presented to them”. The person summarised the congressional probe bluntly: “Ethics looked in the wrong place.”
One source suggested the disclosures could resurface if the committee revisits the matter. “If the Ethics Committee comes back and says, ‘We are opening an investigation,’ question one [for Gallego] is: ‘Did you ever have relationships with any staff member during your time in Congress?'” the source said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more that he has to list, and he can’t lie about that because, you know, it’s a sworn [statement].”
Public row with Anna Paulina Luna
Luna claimed in a CBS News interview on 16 April that a woman was preparing to speak out about an “incident” involving Gallego and his former congressional colleague Eric Swalwell “at the same time, and the event was sexual in nature, allegedly”. A week later, on 23 April, she wrote on social media: “I have now heard of 4 women who have had multiple and uncomfortable/inappropriate advances/comments/touching, etc. from Senator Gallego.”
Gallego responded to the Ethics Committee’s dismissal of her complaint by branding the allegations “right-wing conspiracies peddled by far-right activists like Anna Paulina Luna, the White House, and their allies” and demanding an apology.
Luna hit back in a post on X: “The good news about DC is everyone talks, and eventually the reporters come forward with your texts. Do yourself a favor and keep raising for your legal defense fund. Once a creep always a creep, and you’re gonna need it.”
Fallout from the Swalwell resignation
Speculation about Gallego’s personal life has circulated since April, when his closest friend in Congress, California Democrat Eric Swalwell, resigned amid claims by multiple women that he had sexually harassed or assaulted them. Gallego has denied any knowledge of Swalwell’s alleged misconduct.
The Post has previously reported on the third member of the trio’s so-called “Cool Kids Clique”. On 18 April it reported that California Democrat Jimmy Gomez, a close friend of both men, had been spotted kissing a Swalwell aide at a Washington DC house party in the summer of 2023. Gomez confessed in June to cheating on his wife after CNN reported that the House Ethics Committee had “learned of other allegations of sexual misconduct” against him while investigating the initial Post story — an illustration, the paper noted, of how internal investigations can surface additional damaging information.
DOJ investigation and White House ambitions
Beyond his personal life, Gallego is facing a Justice Department investigation into his alleged misuse of campaign funds to attend the Super Bowl in 2023 and to take holidays to St Barts, Disney World and Disneyland. The senator has said the Trump administration’s DOJ is “targeting” him for political reasons.
Gallego married his second wife, Sydney, in June 2021. The Washington Free Beacon has reported that he filed for divorce from his first wife, Katie, ten days before Christmas in 2016, when she was nine months pregnant.
Despite the controversies, a Democratic insider told The Post the senator still harbours presidential ambitions. “He wants to, but it’s getting harder,” the source said. “If he changes his behavior and actually locks in, he could do it. It would be hard. But I don’t see it right now. It’s unfortunate.”
