Arizona senator visits Bucks County, calls out Pa. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick for not holding town halls

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Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., toured Bucks County and spoke to an audience of a few hundred residents at Ben Franklin Middle School in Levittown on Saturday.

The Arizona Democrat attacked Republicans for their economic policies, looming cuts to Medicaid and “tax breaks for the rich.”

“This president has put us in a position, again —the richest country in the world, most modern economy in the world — with the most sophisticated trade in the world where now we have to go hunting to garage sales to find products because this president decided to arbitrarily start a trade war without any concept how to get F out of this,” he said.

The Bucks County Democratic Committee organized the event, billing it as a “town hall,” a rebuke to Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who represents the district where the event was held. Local Democrats have criticized Fitzpatick for not holding any town halls. Many of the audience members wore stickers showing support for Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie, who joined Gallego at the event and is the first Democrat to announce his candidacy challenging Fitzpatrick in 2026.

“We know what the last hundred days have done …  what’s Brian Fitzpatrick done?” Harvie said in his speech. “We know he doesn’t do town halls. We see him on Facebook, we see him taking pictures with kids at little league games, but we don’t see him standing up to protect the Department of Education so those same kids can get [a] good education.”

Gallego said that Fitzpatrick is “afraid” to hear from his constituents.

“He’s afraid that if he comes and meets with you, you’re going to tell him, ‘I don’t want you to cut Medicaid, I actually don’t want you to cut SNAP for poor people and I sure as hell don’t want to keep paying all these high tariffs because you can’t take power back from the President,’” Gallego said. “He’d rather just run away off together and hope somehow this problem goes away or you forget that he was the key to this.”

WHYY News reached out to Fitzpatrick for a response and did not hear back prior to publication. However, he released a statement last month saying he’s committed to protecting Medicaid.

An early bid for 2028?

The trip from Gallego, a first-term senator, comes amid speculation he is setting the groundwork for a potential 2028 presidential bid. His casual conversation style has helped garner a burgeoning national profile despite a narrow election win in the battleground of Arizona last year.

Gallego wouldn’t confirm or deny that he will run.

“Of course, I’ve thought about it,” he told reporters, adding that he is a “new senator” and busy being a father with a third child on the way.

“I don’t want to get divorced,” he quipped. “I love my job, and I need to make sure I do both jobs well.”

Gallego spoke with members of the audience, some criticized Democrats for failing to do more to oppose the Trump administration and for their support for Israel amid the war in Gaza.

“We want you to do more, and we’re frustrated,” an audience member said.

Gallego called it “annoying” that the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, was sidestepping Congress, taking away its power to review DOGE services. He agreed that the courts were “slow” but were “important” to the process.

“When they win, it forces all those actions back through the legislative process. And that’s where we have more power,” he said.

“I am struggling as a person of faith to continue voting for Democrats who are continuing to send my tax dollars to Israel’s genocide,” another women told Gallego.

Gallego called the war “horrible” and said Israel “has a responsibility to abide by international [law] when it comes to humanitarian aid.” He added, however, that it would be “easier for a lot of us to do something if the hostages were released,” referencing the 59 hostages believed to still be held out of more than 250 taken by Hamas in their surprise raid on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. That event prompted Israel to respond with an attack on Gaza that has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians.

The Arizona senator also criticized his own party, saying that Democrats lost elections last year partly because “we got so pure, we started kicking people out of the tent.”

According to Gallego, that included controversial podcaster Joe Rogan, which he said cost Democrats younger voters.

“People were hurting in the last election,” he told reporters. “I think the Democrats messed up by not really focusing on that.”

Who is Ruben Gallego?

Gallego was born in Chicago, Illinois, to a single mother from Colombia and a Mexican father. He touts a working-class upbringing alongside three sisters and talks about supporting his family by working odd jobs, including as a janitor during high school. Gallego later served with the U.S. Marines in the Iraq War and graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in government.

Gallego’s political career began in the Arizona House of Representatives, where he served from 2011 to 2014 and was elected assistant minority leader in 2012. He was then elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2014, representing Arizona’s 7th congressional district until 2023, when he announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat held by Kyrsten Sinema, defeating Republican Kari Lake in the general election.

As a senator, Gallego serves on several committees, including the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources; the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; and the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. He serves alongside Arizona’s other senator, Mark Kelly, another Democrat.

Gallego recently joined another freshman senator, Pennsylvania’s David McCormick, a Republican, to co-sponsor a bill, which McCormick says will increase the availability of affordable housing in the commonwealth.