Kari Lake is widely known. But Rep. Ruben Gallego says voters need to learn who he is

About halfway into an hourlong town hall, U.S. Senate candidate Ruben Gallego addressed what he and others view as perhaps the biggest challenge of his campaign: telling people who he is.

The five-term Democratic member of Congress, who running for the first time outside his left-leaning south Phoenix House district, says he is looking for common ground with Republicans and independents.

It is not the message that for years landed him on cable news, where he gleefully skewered former President Donald Trump and GOP priorities.

Now he is striking a measured tone intended to contrast with Kari Lake, the Republican front-runner who is also challenging for the seat held by U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz. Sinema is not running for reelection.

“I would say, to give credit to a lot of my Republican and independent friends, they know who Kari Lake is, and they don’t like what they see,” Gallego said Wednesday evening. “We don’t have to explain to them who Kari Lake is. We have to explain to them who I am and what my values are.”

He is a sponsor of a bill to rein in child abuse of Native Americans that passed overwhelmingly in the U.S. House of Representatives and the supporter for years of bipartisan spending plans for the Pentagon, Gallego argued.

“When we can work together, let’s work together,” he said. “If you can’t, that’s fine. Figure out another time to work together. Don’t take it personally.”

Gallego on Lake: 'Fear-mongering, conspiracy theories and just more hatred '

The 300 people on hand for the Pebble Creek Democratic Club in Goodyear applauded his approach, though it was unclear how many of them were the kind of Republicans and independents Gallego hopes to woo.

What was evident, however, is that Gallego showed support in an unlikely place.

His town hall offered a sharp contrast with Lake’s ask-me-anything event a day earlier in Sun City West.

Gallego drew hundreds of Democrats on Republican turf with a crowd three times larger than Lake drew in an even redder location that included Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Lake received about 54% of the votes in Goodyear during her 2022 gubernatorial campaign against Gov. Katie Hobbs. She received about 60% of the votes in Sun City West.

Gallego fielded 11 questions, mostly akin to layups for a Democrat, from attendees holding microphones. One of them was asked and answered in Spanish.

Lake read about a half-dozen questions from note cards. She ignored the one question shouted from an attendee as her event was ending that seemed to be a plea for help on election integrity, a subject Daines has made plain that he wants Lake to drop.

Arizona elections: Kari Lake says Ruben Gallego will use campaign funds to 'try to trick' Arizonans

Gallego and Lake each assailed the other in the events that in back-to-back days may have presaged the rhetorical battles to come for the next seven months.

Asked to comment about the defamation case that Lake faces over her baseless claims of election fraud by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican, Gallego said it showed what she lacks.

“People like Kari Lake want to say, ‘Well, I have a right to question.’ No. You don’t have a right. You’re exploiting. You’re not a leader if you’re exploiting peoples’ fear, and that’s what she’s doing now. … I think (Arizonans) see what she is offering and it’s nothing but fear-mongering, conspiracy theories and just more hatred for our fellow Arizonans.”

On Tuesday, Lake alluded to Gallego’s prolific fundraising before launching a broadside against him:

She said Democrats would “take in a ton of money from God knows where and God knows who, and he’s going to run ads making himself look like he’s just a middle-of-the-road kind of guy. And it couldn’t be further from the truth.

“He’s going to stay out of any types of debates or anything like that. He’s not going to come out and talk. He’s just going to do these commercials and try to trick the people of Arizona.”

Who is Ruben Gallego? What you need to know as he runs in Arizona's US Senate race

Gallego contrasts his positions with Lake on abortion, border

The first question Gallego received covered how he would protect abortion rights.

“The first thing we have to dispel is that abortion rights is not a states' rights issue; it’s a woman’s right,” he said. The answer alluded to the 2022 Supreme Court decision that erased federal abortion rights, leaving the matter to states.

“It’s not back to the states. The onus is back on women now, and it’s not fair. If you have a right, your right should not be dictated by your ZIP code. A woman’s right to have control of her body should not be decided by what line she lives on.”

Gallego said he favors suspending the legislative filibuster to ensure passage of a law that codifies federal abortion rights.

Lake, commenting on a question about declining birth rates, said she wants policies that reward childbirth.

“I also want to encourage women to make that choice to keep their baby, and any way we can help out, I want to save as many babies as possible,” she said.

“That’s where I stand on the abortion issue. I want to make sure that women have true options, that when they walk into an abortion clinic they don’t get just one option. There’s options to help them if they can’t afford a baby. There’s options to help them if they want to be a mother. If they need help, we can help, so I also want to do a child tax credit, baby bonuses, to encourage people to start families.”

Gallego has the endorsement of Reproductive Freedom for All, formerly known as NARAL Pro-Choice America, and an “F” grade from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which opposes abortion rights.

As a gubernatorial candidate, Lake said she was “incredibly thrilled” about the prospect of Arizona reinstating a territorial era law that criminalized abortions except to save the life of the mother. During her Senate run, she has said she favors state-level laws, including Arizona’s present ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Gallego was asked about the southern border, an issue that increasingly resonates across party lines.

He said he supported the bill Sinema helped negotiate that focused on border security. Republicans rejected the bill after Trump urged them not to give President Joe Biden a legislative victory.

“I think it would have helped tremendously,” Gallego said of her bill. “What’s happening on the border … the asylum system is being abused. There are people that are knowingly coming to this country asking for asylum, knowing we’re not going to be able to get to them in five to seven years.”

He called for more judges to process the cases more quickly and more Border Patrol agents to keep cross-border commerce moving.

Lake said that on her first day in the Senate, “I would like to introduce legislation to … I want to build the wall. I want to build the wall and fund the wall.”

“Border security is national security. Our streets aren’t safe anymore,” she said.

Republic reporter Caitlin McGlade contributed to this article.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Rep. Ruben Gallego holds Goodyear townhall ahead of Senate election