U.S. Senator Rubén Gallego, an emerging figure in the Democratic Party, says it is highly likely the Donald Trump administration will opt for a new military intervention to force a regime change in Cuba. “Cubans in Florida have a lot of power and the State Secretary, Marco Rubio, is obsessed with the island,” he told reporters on Friday at the Real Instituto Elcano think tank headquarters in Madrid. “But I don’t believe Cuba is a threat to the U.S.; it’s a very poor country of nine million inhabitants,” he added.
The Arizona representative criticized the White House’s strategy of turning to military force to pursue political change in Latin America. “The United States should not start wars to overthrow governments, and I think practically 99% of Democrats holding public office are against this war,” Gallego said. In March, the senator introduced a bill in the upper chamber, where his party does not hold a majority, to prevent Trump from launching an operation similar to the one in Venezuela without congressional authorization.
Gallego, a former Marine and an Iraq War veteran, said that although the operation to capture Nicolás Maduro in January was militarily effective, the political results have not met expectations. “What have we changed in Venezuela? We went from one dictator to another, so from a geopolitical standpoint it has been a failure and will continue to be a failure until Venezuela smoothly transitions to democracy,” he added. “Maduro is a horrible person, a corrupt one,” he said, “but that does not give us license to overthrow these governments.”
The senator predicts that the mismanagement of the war with Iran, increasingly unpopular with American voters, will hurt the Trump administration and the Republican Party in the midterm elections this November. All seats in the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate will be up for election, and the forecast is that the Republican majority, at least in the House, is at risk. Gallego is optimistic and said it is very likely his party could even gain control of the upper chamber.
“The war is a problem for voters,” he said, referring to the widespread rejection of a conflict that has become a political liability for the White House and to the economic impact of the military campaign. “It is distracting the government from the things Americans care about; everything is very expensive in the United States right now,” he added.
Winning back the Latino vote
Although Latinos have historically leaned Democratic, the 2024 presidential election reversed that trend and Trump won the support of a majority of Hispanic men. Now, a poll from UnidosUS released this week indicates that one in four Latinos regrets having voted for the Republican.
Born to a Mexican father and a Colombian mother, Gallego acknowledged that his party fell short two years ago in persuading Latino voters. In 2024, the senator carried a 22-point advantage among Arizona Hispanic voters over his Republican rival, a margin greater than the one the Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, achieved in the state among members of that community. “We talked about what mattered to people, which were two things: the economy and immigration,” he said of his campaign.
“We need to stop seeing Latinos as we would like them to be and see them as they are,” he said. “Many on the left in the Democratic Party would like them to be more liberal on issues like immigration because they are children of migrants,” he argued. “But my own family told me the border was out of control and that the president had to do something to change that. Those who understood that did well. Those who didn’t ended up losing.”
Although many hopefuls have raised their hands two years before the presidential race, it remains unclear who among the Democrats will step forward after recent electoral setbacks. Gallego, whose name has circulated widely among potential candidates, said there are many strong profiles in the party, though he would not say who, in his view, would be the right contender for the White House. He also declined to say whether he is interested in running himself, or what his plans for 2028 might be. “We have to think first about 2026 and then we’ll see; besides, I have three children,” he said with a laugh.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition
