Ruben Gallego did better than most Democrats. He says his party needs to stoke working class roots

PHOENIX (AP) — Building authentic connections with working-class voters can help Democrats find their way back to power in Washington, incoming Democratic Sen.-elect Ruben Gallego of Arizona said Friday.

Taking stock of election results that showed him doing significantly better than other Arizona Democrats, Gallego said he put a lot of work into telling his compelling life story and connecting with voters. As a result, Gallego said, even as voters grew skeptical of the Democrats, they believed him when he said he would look out for regular people.

“People got to know who I was and what my values were, and so that they got to know me as Ruben the Marine veteran, Ruben the dad, Ruben the working-class kid who has lived the American dream and wants you to live the American dream,” Gallego told The Associated Press. “And I think when things started going bad we were able to resist the tide because people knew me and they had a perspective of me, they knew I was fighting for them.”

Gallego defeated Republican Kari Lake by 2.4 percentage points, even as fellow Democrat Kamala Harris lost to President-elect Donald Trump by 5.5 points in Arizona. That’s a nearly 8-point swing for the Democrats from the top of the ticket to the Senate race.

Gallego overcame a hardscrabble childhood to become Arizona's first Latino senator. He was largely raised by a single mother after his father left the family and was imprisoned for dealing drugs, leaving Gallego to work multiple jobs to help with bills while in high school. He was accepted to Harvard University, joined the Marines and fought in Iraq with a unit that sustained heavy casualties.

That story featured prominently in Gallego's campaign speeches and advertising.

Democrats don't need to have such a harrowing life story to succeed in tough races, he said, but they do need to relate to the voters they're asking to trust them.

“What’s most important is for you as a candidate to be able to connect with everyday voters and make sure they understand in you and see in you that you are gonna fight for them,” Gallego said. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be the same story as me, but somehow you need to be able to connect and to be able to do it an authentic way.”

Voters need to believe that Democrats are for the working class over elites and small businesses over large corporations, he added.

“We need to be able to go back to our economic roots where we are literally known and understood as being for working families,” Gallego said.

AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of more than 4,000 voters in Arizona, shows Gallego won Hispanic men against Lake, even though Harris and Trump split them in Arizona.

Young men of all races and ethnicities broke for Trump in the presidential race but were evenly divided between Lake and Gallego in the Senate contest, according to AP VoteCast.

Overall, about 1 in 10 Trump voters split their ticket to vote for Gallego, while very few Harris voters also chose Lake. Among members of the two major parties, only about 8 in 10 Arizona Republicans voted for the combination of Trump and Lake, whereas about 9 in 10 Arizona Democrats voted for Harris and Gallego.

Gallego is wrapping up his term in the House and will take his Senate seat in January, replacing Kyrsten Sinema, who was elected as a Democrat and later became an independent.

Despite being fiercely critical of Sinema's steadfast opposition to ending the Senate's filibuster rule, Gallego said Friday he would not vote to eliminate it if Republicans try to do so.

“It’s not my job to make their job easier,” Gallego said.

Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., center, welcomes incoming Democrat senators in his office Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Washington, from right, Sen.-elect Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich, Sen.-elect Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., Sen.-elect Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif, Schumer, Sen.-elect Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., Sen.-elect Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., Sen.-elect Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J. AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Arizona Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., waves to the crowd as he leaves the stage his wife Sydney Gallego after speaking during a watch party on election night Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela, part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media that the U.S. Coast Guard had boarded the Motor Tanker Veronica early Thursday. She said the ship had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s "established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.”

U.S. Southern Command said Marines and sailors launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to take part in the operation alongside a Coast Guard tactical team, which Noem said conducted the boarding as in previous raids. The military said the ship was seized “without incident.”

Noem posted a brief video that appeared to show part of the ship’s capture. The black-and-white footage showed helicopters hovering over the deck of a merchant vessel while armed troops dropped down on the deck by rope.

The Veronica is the sixth sanctioned tanker seized by U.S. forces as part of the effort by Trump’s administration to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s oil products and the fourth since the U.S. ouster of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid almost two weeks ago.

The Veronica last transmitted its location on Jan. 3 as being at anchor off the coast of Aruba, just north of Venezuela’s main oil terminal. According to the data it transmitted at the time, it was partially filled with crude.

The ship is currently listed as flying the flag of Guyana and is considered part of the shadow fleet that moves cargoes of oil in violation of U.S. sanctions.

According to its registration data, the ship also has been known as the Galileo, owned and managed by a company in Russia. In addition, a tanker with the same registration number previously sailed under the name Pegas and was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for moving cargoes of illicit Russian oil.

As with prior posts about such raids, Noem and the military framed the seizure as part of an effort to enforce the law. Noem argued that the multiple captures show that “there is no outrunning or escaping American justice.”

However, other officials in Trump's Republican administration have made clear that they see the actions as a way to generate cash as they seek to rebuild Venezuela’s battered oil industry and restore its economy.

Trump met with executives from oil companies last week to discuss his goal of investing $100 billion in Venezuela to repair and upgrade its oil production and distribution. His administration has said it expects to sell at least 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil.

This story has been corrected to show the Veronica is the fourth, not the third, tanker seized by U.S. forces since Maduro's capture.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a press conference, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at a news conference at Harry Reid International Airport, Nov. 22, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill, File)