Report: Swalwell Bestie Sen. Ruben Gallego Used Campaign Cash on Lavish Purchases
Two birds of a feather…
Two birds of a feather…
Politico scrutinized Sen. Ruben Gallego’s (D-AZ) financial records and discovered he used leadership PAC campaign cash to fund luxury outings with his family since he launched his Senate campaign in 2023.
As we all know, Gallego was best friends with disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell.
Gallego’s name popped up in financial records in April after numerous females claimed Swalwell had harassed or assaulted them.
The senator feigned ignorance, but it could not keep prying eyes away.
First, we need to know the rules.
FEC rules allow federal lawmakers to “use campaign committee funds for travel, food, events and even child care, as long as those funds are not for ‘personal use,’ meaning they may not cover activities that would exist irrespective of the campaign.”
Leadership PACs do not necessarily have to follow the strict rules governing campaign committee funds, “meaning lawmakers have broad latitude to use the money they raise as long as it has some fundraising function.”
A person familiar with the situation told Politico that Gallego “leaned into that leeway” since his wife, Sydney, their three children, her mother, and a full-time au pair joined him on trips.
It all started in February 2023, only 20 days after Gallego launched his Senatorial campaign.
Gallego, his family, Swalwell, Swalwell’s then-chief of staff Yardena Wolf, donors, and guests attended Super Bowl LVII in Arizona:
The gathering was billed as a fundraiser for the “Swallego Victory Fund,” a joint committee Swalwell and Gallego established in October 2022. Tickets to attend cost $5,000 and included a “pre-game brunch” that could be attended independently for $1,000, according to a copy of the invitation provided to POLITICO by Swalwell’s lawyer, Sara Azari. The committee raised a total of $56,505, all but $900 of which the FEC logged between Jan. 31 and Feb. 13, 2023, the day after the Super Bowl, according to FEC records. It spent $34,700 on event tickets and about $2,715 at The Henry, a brunch restaurant in Phoenix, the records show.
Donors to the committee included Rick Smith, the country’s highest paid CEO in 2024, and Dina LaPolt, a celebrity entertainment lawyer, both of whom attended the Super Bowl with family members. Neither Smith nor LaPolt responded to a request for comment. Wolf, Swalwell’s chief of staff at the time, also did not respond to a request for comment.
Gallego and Swalwell established the joint committee “in connection with Super Bowl LVII, and supporters who met the applicable contribution requirements were eligible to attend,” a Gallego spokesperson said in a statement to POLITICO. The spokesperson added that “tickets were purchased at fair market value” and that “Hosting donors and supporters at sporting events in their areas is a common, bipartisan practice.”
Swalwell and Gallego insisted there was nothing shady about the joint venture.
Except that the “Swallego Victory Fund” did not raise any money after March 2023. They shut it down in January 2025, leaving the two men $7,643.89 for their personal campaign committees.
Gallego formed the JUNTOS PAC in February 2024, a month after he took his Senate seat. FEC records show that the PAC has taken in $1.5 million, “more than half of which came from corporate PACs.”
Gallego has used those funds to campaign and fundraise, but also for his family to travel with him:
That includes PAC retreats at Disney World where Gallego brought his wife, children and their au pair, and another to Disneyland with his wife and kids that FEC records show totaled nearly $1,500 in meals and hotels, not including flights, the person said.
The Gallegos also used PAC money to travel to St. Barts for Sydney Gallego’s boss’ birthday and to Miami for Sydney Gallego’s own birthday, according to the person familiar with his spending, staying at a Loews hotel on Miami Beach that cost more than $9,000, FEC records show. And when Gallego traveled to Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood in November 2025 to denounce the federal immigration crackdown there, the family stayed in a vacation rental, the person said, which records show cost the PAC nearly $1,500.
A Gallego spokesperson claimed that “all of those trips included fundraising activity.”
The campaign shelled out $400 to his mother-in-law for “babysitting while at a campaign fundraiser.” Another $600 went to a member of Gallego’s staff for childcare. When pushed, Gallego’s office argued “that the aide’s mother was actually the one providing the services.”
[Featured image via YouTube]
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Comments
This guy has all the earmarks of a grifter. Sky high TDS and BFF with Swallwell. I wish they would nail him nut nothing will come of this, They all do it. The rules should be more restricted and air tight and family should be barred from receiving any benefits.
Compared to the Medicare fraud by Democrats across the country, this guy is a petty thief. He must have done something to cross the Democrat party, maybe advocating for his constituents something that aligns with President Trump’s policies.
Both Democrats and Republicans are actively resisting Trump’s domestic, foreign, defense and monetary policies and are all in to stop him by any means necessary.
To be singled out he definitely rubbed the wrong people.
Every Democrat seems to be on the stealing funds.
Wait a minute. Don’t they (the Democraps) all do that?
Yes, but he is a Democrat. Hence nothing will happen. Hillary misspent $400,000 of campaign money…and nothing happened. She solicited money for her foundation while in office, and then spent millions on herself and grifting family. Ho hum.
Super. Now do Mark Kelly.
IMO there’s gonna be ‘more to follow’ in the saga of homeboy and his pal/roomie Swalwell shenanigans. His use of campaign dollars to fund personal lifestyle seems really at the extreme end of the spectrum. Sure the candidates can use some funds that benefit them long term after the election, buying a sharp suit and continuing to wear it after the election is reasonable. Funding basic personal expenses for yourself and family is not. What may be going on is other politicians worried that the public will pressure them to make a clear/bright line statute that prohibits any/all use of campaign funds outside the narrow timeline of last filing date through general election and a total prohibition on spending any funds on family members whatsoever to include the increasingly common salary paid to family as ‘consultant’.
If Medicaid will pay family members to do what they should do as family members, it’s hard to fault politicians for using campaign funds for the same thing.