Ruben Gallego is a Democratic senator from Arizona. Last year, he won his election there, even as Donald Trump was also winning the state. Gallego has a sharp view about where Democrats have gone wrong. You’ve been talking about this term Latinx. It’s something that’s used largely by white liberals and small amount of Latinos. And he has a story that he thinks Democrats should be telling if they want to start winning more often, which is why I wanted to talk to him for Americas Next Story, a Times Opinion series about the ideas that once held our country together, and those that might do so again. Senator Gallego, Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. You’ve just dropped one of your kids off at daycare. That’s right. You just had a new baby. Congratulations. Thank you. And your oldest kid is here with us today in the studio. He’s on break, so he’s going to tag along with dad for a bit. He’s come from Arizona to Washington. That’s right. Excellent well, Thanks for bringing him. Of course. Let’s go back to college. Oh, God. You went to Harvard in the early 2000s? Yeah. And back then, as is still the case, the most popular things to do coming out of Harvard included tech and finance and consulting. You did something different. You went into the Marines. Why? Well, it wasn’t much of a choice. I was a reservist, and I had always intended to serve my country one way or the other. And I joined about a year before September 11. And after that, I went on a series of activations. And when I got out, I had basically and one and a half years left on my contract. I moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and they told me if I join that I would be sent to Iraq. And to be honest, I hated the war. I hated that we had gone to war. But I also felt very deconflicted that if I didn’t go, someone else was going to take my spot. And so I went and unfortunately was a very hard activation. But the reason I ended up not in finance, not in this, not in anything else is because I was just serving my country. And by the time I was done, the war had changed me a lot to the point where I just couldn’t go and do the finance work, the other types of work. I needed to do something that had some meaning and drive in my life, because the war really took a lot out of me. And so you moved to Arizona and you get involved in politics. You’re in the state legislature, and then you’re elected to Congress, and then you run for U.S. Senate and and let’s go to election night last year, because you must have had mixed feelings. I mean, you win and you are going to the US Senate at a pretty young age. And you also realize that Donald Trump is going back to the presidency. What was that when you realized that you were going to win, but Kamala Harris was going to lose. So we knew on election night when the numbers came in from. Two big counties and one rural area, that there was basically no way for us to lose at that point. But seeing the numbers that the vice president hit was and she was leading. But knowing how votes break out, we knew that wasn’t going to hold. It was hard because I wanted to jump for joining me. My family had sacrificed for two years to run for office. And we were proud of as a family that we had hit an amazing American story. We didn’t come from a lineage of senators. But then, of course, you have Trump and realizing that that’s going to be a very hard situation. I was hopeful, to be honest, that maybe things would be better than they are right now, but they’re not. How do you diagnose why you won Arizona in particular. And Kamala Harris lost it. We were very real about what was actually happening on the ground, and we didn’t lie to ourselves. I think a lot of Democrats running, and it wasn’t just Vice President Harris that they wanted to talk about the things they were comfortable talking about. They didn’t want to go to where the voter was. So they wanted to talk about abortion and democracy. Basically, yes. And sometimes there’s some voters that want to talk about that. But what we were seeing on the ground in Arizona was that people were worried about being able to make the rent. They were worried about border security, and they were worried about what is truly happening to the American dream. And for a place like Arizona that was known to be affordable, had always been affordable for the first time anybody’s memory. It became a very unaffordable place very quickly. And we sounded extremely out of touch that we weren’t talking about that. Now, my campaign, we did talk about it. So we talked about it. We talked about the cost of everything. And we did it in a way that wasn’t an economic message. It was like an emotional message. I talked about how I grew up poor, and I understand how frustrating it is. And I remember those days to work and work and work and then look up and you’re still underwater. And that is what was dragging down a lot of people in Arizona, especially working class Latino men who have a mentality that I can work, and keep working and get myself out of this situation. But for the first time, I heard this, desperation that I had never heard in my 45 years of being a Latino man, that they just felt that they weren’t going to make it. And we talked to them because I understood what they were going through. A lot of Democrats did not do that, certainly not in Arizona. But I think also across the country. I think if we had a member of Vice President Harris campaign team here, they might say, hey, look, we tried we criticized Donald Trump’s tariffs as being a tax on the American people. We talked about her focus on lifting people up. And so I do think they tried I’m interested. I think they did try. I just think there’s ways to do it that probably weren’t able to connect. Yeah and I mean, what’s interesting to me about it plays into, I think, this broader critique you’ve had about the Democratic Party, which is that how it talks to people and how it treats people, too, and how it treats people, too. And you got a whole bunch of attention a few years ago for banning your staff in Congress from using the term Latinx, which you said is mostly a term that white liberals use and Latinas and Latinos think is silly. And I’m interested in your critique of how Democrats talk about the economy, because I think often the economy is an issue in which Democrats feel like, hey, we’re comfortable on that issue. It’s not like immigration. It’s not like gender. We’re comfortable in the economy. But you’ve said actually, basically the Democratic Party still talks say too much like Harvard professors and not enough like Marine Corps members to use your life. Yeah and so specifically, you’ve said this idea that Democrats should talk about the American dream in terms of prosperity rather than quote, a nebulous message about justice. Yes can you be more specific about that. So, I mean, a lot of times, especially in the last couple of years, what I’ve heard from coming from the Democratic side, my friends, is that they talk about economic equity. They talk about these ideas of essentially, trying to equalize capitalism, to lift people out of poverty. And that’s just not how people think. And it’s also this assumption that the Democrats themselves, the actual base voters, don’t want to be prosperous. They don’t want to be rich, so they don’t want to be successful. They don’t want to be stable. And so we have this situation within the Democratic talk where we kind of shy away from that because we feel somehow icky. I’m surrounded by working class Democrats, and the reason I speak the way I speak is because no one in my family is involved in politics. We’re half my family’s are in Union the other half are very working class. I have one, one sister who’s a doctor. I live in a working class neighborhood in Phoenix. No one there talks about economic equity. What they talk about is I want to be able to buy a home. I am starting a business. I want to make money. I want my kids to do well. I want to be happy. And when we have these nebulous positions that people just can’t put their finger on, then Democrats are kind of losing an opportunity. Because if we’re the party of opportunity, if we’re the party, that’s going to give you a real chance at the American dream, buying a home, starting a business, being able to go on vacation for God’s sake, things that people used to be able to do, then people will say, that’s the party that I want in there to fight for me. But when we’re just this kind of nebulous, blah group of people, that is going to protect this idea, but we don’t actually ever really do anything about it. They’re going to go off to something else shinier and the shinier has come with Donald Trump. This is the point where I have to ask about big [expletive] trucks. Troquitas! Yes, in an interview with the New York Times you said that what Latino men want is to own a big [expletive] truck, which is connected very much to what you were just saying. And I assume you would say the point is broader than Latino men. It’s men and women. It’s men and women. It’s everything Asian, Black and white Americans. I mean, I said that mostly just to break through this because I’ve heard it so much Latino men go this way. I’m like, well, Latino men want things. There’s a lot of Democrats. And the more liberal side that would hope that Latino men are more reflective and look and vote like white liberal men, they don’t. They’re different. They’re entirely different. They’re entirely different experience. And they’re not like Black men either. They have entirely different experience. And so to break through have to keep it simple. They want security, they want economic security, and they want physical security for their family. And their wants are legitimate. We shouldn’t just shy away from or ignore it because it puts us in an uncomfortable spot. So the turkey to the truck, it’s symbolic because it really is a status symbol that you have succeeded in this country. It means that you can afford a brand new nice truck that you take that truck to work, and that work brings dignity to your family. It helps you pay the bills. You get to load your kids on there. You get to go on vacation. It involves this whole symbolic gesture to your community that you are leading your family and that you are bringing them into the American dream. That’s what it really represents. I think a lot of people feel uncomfortable about that, but that really is, it’s as simple as that. Also, trucks are fun. Trucks are a lot of fun. So I think to me that’s a version of you saying the party needs to talk more about prosperity and less about things like equity and justice. Look, I think there was a lot of thought, post-Obama, that if we focus on equity and justice, then that somehow would be the unifier of the Democratic coalition. It ends up the biggest unifier Democrat coalition Black, white, Latino immigrants, Asians, everybody else is the personal checking account is people being able to buy a home, be able to pay bills, be able to get grocery groceries without stressing out. That actually is what unifies our coalition. And when we walked away from that, because of just pure political convenience, our coalition started eroding more and more and more. And we’re seeing it all the time. Look, I didn’t predict that Donald Trump would get increasing support over his political career. From Latino and Black and Asian-Americans. But the fact is, he has. And it feels like Democrats made this fundamental misdiagnosis, which is that people think of themselves first in terms of racial or ethnic groups. And it turns out that doesn’t seem to be the case. It doesn’t. It depends. That’s the other thing. It’s like, when does — when does it happen. When that racial group feels like they collectively are under attack. Like I tell you right now, the Republican Party is going to lose badly with Latinos come 2026 because they moved beyond, hey, we’re going after criminals now. There’s racial profiling in the streets. Originally I’m from Chicago. As I have a lot of friends and family there, varying degrees of politics and who they support. And I would say I did see Latino men, especially in Chicago, moving away from the Democratic Party. That’s not happening right now. I promise we’ll get to immigration in a couple minutes. You don’t have to talk about it too much. We will, we will. Let’s stay on trucks for a minute. So you said big [expletive] trucks. And then the writer Matthew Yglesias took that and coined this term big [expletive] truck abundance. Which plays into this policy debate and abundance debate on abundance within the Democratic Party. And so I’m going to overgeneralize a little bit. But the abundance crowd, which includes my colleague, basically says the Democratic Party should focus on getting rid of bureaucracy and making more stuff. Houses, transportation, clean energy. And then there’s another part of the debate, which is more associated with the progressive wing of the party, Bernie Sanders, A.O.C., that says no economic and political power is the issue, and we can’t be naive, and we have to focus on cracking down on corporate power. And we should be creating universal government programs for child care, which I an issue you deal with in your own personal life. Yeah just today. Just today. So where are you. Are you or do you think you’re more on one side in that debate, or do you straddle the two sides. There’s a really good commercial for Taco shells and there’s a debate of whether they should be soft or hard. And at the end of the commercial, really cute Latino little girl says, “Por que no los dos?” Why can’t it be both? We should be able to mix both of this. We should be building things fast, as fast as possible, especially housing. And at the same time, we should be making sure that monopolies don’t control markets that are driving up prices. We should be able to build roads fast, and at the same time, make sure that there’s ways for us to have affordable child care for working class America. I don’t understand why everyone seems to be in these corners, because the American people aren’t that way. If we make their lives better by both means, then we get the net benefit, which is their support and their vote. And so you’re saying you can be both pro abundance, and you can be a populist who wants to take on corporate power. Absolutely like I it doesn’t mean that it’s everything’s a fight. It doesn’t mean like every corporation is bad. But there are some bad ones, right. It doesn’t mean that every regulation is bad, but there are some bad regulations. And I think as policymakers, as the actual people that vote and our leaders, we have to be able to pick and choose when to use the tools. So maybe sometimes it is abundant. Sometimes it is going against our monopolies. So it’s interesting because I think the answers you just gave on abundance could also have been given by Zohran Mamdani, the New York politician. I’ve heard of him. I’m sure you have. What do you think of him. Look, I think he really struck a chord. And when I talk about big [expletive] truck policy, and that’s how I got a lot of people to vote. Like, the man’s talking about affordable rents, right and be able to afford – I don’t for New York apartment with a second bathroom or something like that apartment. Yeah medium [expletive] apartment. He talks about affordability. I disagree with some things. Like, I don’t think they should have government run grocery stores, but I guarantee you, there’s a lot of New Yorkers that are like yeah — I don’t agree with that. But at least he’s talking about it. At least he has some ideas. At least he’s pushing something. And I think there’s a lot of Democrats that are missing the boat. Like we don’t have to support him on everything. We could just disagree in some areas. But the fact is that he talks about affordability. He talks about trying to make people’s lives better. That’s resonating. And now we may not agree how he’s going to get there, but let’s not ignore the lesson that he’s showing. I do think there’s this interesting question about the attention economy today. Zohran Mamdani is clearly on the left part of the Democratic Party. Yes and I think what we see today is that it often feels easier for people who are making arguments and drawing contrasts, and their critics would say are at the extremes to get attention. You’re much more moderate, and sometimes moderation can seem boring, if we’re being honest. But you figured out a way to break through in Arizona. How do you think about how someone with your politics doesn’t just come off as boring and technocratic in this day and age of social media and attention. I think what happened with us in Arizona was that we used some smart ways to get into people’s feeds. We did boxing matches. We did car shows, truck shows, a lot of stuff. But hey, I reached out to white suburban people with pickleball tournaments too, right. So we did everything we could. But the reason it resonates is because while I was using them to get their attention, I was talking to them about what they were really worried about right now. And the ability for any candidate or elected official to talk in an authentic way will carry through. It will. The problem is we have and on the Democratic side, we have less and less of us that actually can speak about the personal checkbook and economics of a family in an authentic way. That’s why you could get on TV as much as you want. You could go on podcasts, you’d do your Instagram lives, and it’s not going to catch. It’s really interesting because whether you’re coming from the left or closer to the center, both Mamdani in New York and you in Arizona, your messaging really emphasized those economic issues. So he didn’t talk in his mayoral campaign about ice or about Gaza very much. He emphasized the same things you’re talking about right. Because that’s what voters care about every day. Yeah, you get reminded about it every week. So, I have three kids. We have a family of five depending when the rest of my family is over, he could be even bigger. But we go grocery shopping every week. So I see that grocery bill. And I’m very lucky. My wife and I make a good salary, so it doesn’t impact us that much. But I noticed that price and I still have poor boy mentality. When you grow up poor, it’s hard to get out of that mentality. So I’m still kind of watching all this. If I’m seeing this, I can’t imagine what a family is thinking every Saturday and Sunday when they go shopping. Yeah and it hits. It just hits. So we’ve touched on immigration, a couple times now. Let’s really dig in on it. One one of your early forays into politics in Arizona was helped lead a recall campaign against Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Yeah, I got very close to who was this, as I’m sure many listeners remember, was this cruel anti-immigrant sheriff. And more recently, I think your image on immigration has changed in your campaign. You criticized Joe Biden’s open immigration policy, you co-sponsored the Laken Riley Act, which calls for the detention of undocumented immigrants who’ve committed certain crimes even before the court trial has happened. How would you describe your own personal evolution or not, on immigration. It hasn’t actually been that much of an evolution. Why was I trying to recall Sheriff Joe. He was racially profiling Americans. He was racially profiling Latinos because we were Brown. He was pulling them over while driving brown. Nothing to do with immigration or anything else like that. Number one, that’s why — and then I will do it again, if should that ever happen again. Number two, I think the Democratic understanding of immigration and illegal immigration has always been pretty basic. And then it went awry, which is for border security or for humanitarian immigration reform and work for reforming the overall the visa worker permit, something happened where all of a sudden now, we were also supposed to be extremely liberal when it comes to asylum seekers. When do you think that happened. It’s sometime happening between Trump and Biden. And I think there was this overall reaction to Trump in his first term that a lot of people just assumed that this is where the new conversation went, when there was some of us that grew up on the border one way or the other. I also lived in Mexico for a little bit and have family in all levels of immigration going on through my whole life. When that started happening, a lot of us were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, that’s not what we want. But nobody wanted to listen to us. And what happened was that a lot of policy makers started listening to some more liberal people about what was happening at the border. Liberal people who claim to speak for the Latino community. Correct, yes. And in many cases, liberal people who themselves were Latino, the ones getting a hearing in the administration. Yes, essentially. And because they were in their little bubbles and without any personal experience. The administration just basically listened to them and for us that had always had the same position. My position has not changed. I am for border security. I am for immigration reform, sane immigration reform. If you’re a criminal, you should be convicted and deported. That’s never changed. The problem is we went totally to an area where a lot of Democrats weren’t. And so my position, I think, is where traditionally Democrats have been, if you hear what Hillary Clinton was saying hear what Barack Obama is saying here, what Bill Clinton was saying about immigration, that’s been the traditional place. What happened in the last four years was an absolutely out of norm of where Democrats are and why we lost, because it was out of no where most Americans are. And if you see what’s happening right now, most Americans are very unhappy what’s happening with immigration right now, because they like that the border is secure. And I get yelled at all the time because I say, it’s a good thing that the border is secure. Meaning Trump has secured it. Yes, exactly. That’s a good thing. It’s a value to this country that we have the lowest amount of illegal immigrants crossing the border right now. What I want them to do now is let’s do immigration reform, stop racially profiling, stop deploying National Guards to patrol these streets that are supposedly are dangerous. And really invest in a smart way of dealing with a broken system. So I think that’s what some Democrats who are in a little bit of a different place than you would say, which is there will be a time to debate the finer points of immigration policy and a time to vote for a bill like the Laken Riley Act or not vote for it. But this isn’t that time. We’ve got federal agents in masks picking people up off the street. We’ve got the president deporting people to a horrible foreign prison without due process. We’ve got the president and his administration racially profiling Latinos based on the way they have to do both and speak. And so you have to because here’s why. You have to do both, David, if you give the voter the option of saying either we’re going to have security that’s way too strong or no security at all, they’re going to give the more security side. The benefit of doubt. So the Democrats, we have to have a position that is a position that Americans can gather to and say what. I totally disagree with what this guy is doing. With the roundups, the deportations, everything else like that. What I want to see is what the Democrats are proposing, and what they’re proposing is where I am. If we’re only oppositional and just saying, no, no, no, we’re going to end up losing this argument in the end because people generally want to be secure. And if we don’t give them some type of idea of what we’re bringing, they’re going to go to whoever is giving them any type of security. Let me read you what Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois recently said. He said, this is exactly the moment for people to stand up. And do I see enough people doing it. No I don’t. Do you disagree with that. I think this is the moment to stand up. I think there are people that are moving into the fight. This is not a very easy situation for. I think a lot of people in your everyday American. Why It’s not that they want an open border. It’s not that they want people deported. There’s just a lot of stuff going on in their lives right now. There’s just a lot of stuff. And from talking to my family that’s still in Chicago, they’re afraid of being picked up. They’re afraid of being picked up. They’re afraid for their country. But asking for people to take action. Now, it’s not as easy as it sounds because people are generally afraid of what could happen. And that is part of this, I think, decision making that’s happening right now. But it’s not like, we’re going to be able to protest like we used to back in the day, because people are generally afraid for their personal safety. I think I’ve also heard you suggesting that Democrats need to be strategic about this. And you probably wouldn’t put it this way, but not always stand on principle. So after, that. I would never put it that way. Well, I know you wouldn’t, but that’s what I want to push you a little bit. It feels fair. So I read an interview where you were discussing Trump’s deportation of alleged gang members to El Salvador, and you said it’s important to defend due process. And, look, you’ve criticized Trump as you’re doing here, but you also said Democrats shouldn’t, quote, just jump and automatically assume that number one, that the person you’re advocating for is someone that people can empathize with. And so I’m kind of interested in. You basically said, look, that was an unjust deportation, but it’s not the fight we want to have. Yes, it’s. Look, you got to be smart about this. There’s perfect examples throughout any type of movement. I’ll give you a good example. When Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to go to the back of the bus, it wasn’t coincidence that it was Rosa Parks. They had purposely, vetted a lot of candidates to who would be the best example of this horrible segregation system. If we want to point out how awful this deportation system is what it’s doing to families. We should do it in a smart way. Let’s find the most caring person, the person that people can empathize with. The person that says, I want that person to stay in our country. Don’t rush to a fight that someone has already set up. Because these guys, and I think a lot of people don’t quite understand, Donald Trump’s people are smart. They set up traps of this nature all the time, and they love nothing more for us to just run in there and just get into it with them. And they have all the advantages, they’ve already set up the field to fight in. They have all the information. And we’re just playing catch up, if you want to win. And I think that’s the ultimate goal. Let’s be smart about actually doing this right. Why not use the people that can actually connect with this issue. And this is a podcast series about what America’s next story should be. And what you’re saying is be smart about the story that the Democratic Party is telling. Absolutely Yeah, we have to want to win and we have to plan to win. Those things don’t necessarily happen in Democratic politics, and I’ve seen it over and over and over again. I’ve never lost a race in my every time I’ve run. And the reason I’ve never lost a race is largely because, I don’t bring any political perspective. I bring a Marine perspective to this. I mean, the Marines they teach you everything is about mission objective first, and then you build your whole campaign, your whole plan, your whole battle plan around mission objective, and you’re agnostic about it. And so when we ran for the House, for the Senate, I figured out what did I need to win. Put the plan together, and go. Democrats sometimes try to stumble into victories, and that might be fine, but this really means people’s lives are in danger and Democrats are not winning in 2024. 2016 really cost us a lot of our positions and values that are going to be in danger for quite a while, and I would say that I think sometimes Democrats confuse the story that they want to be the winning message with the one that actually is going to be the winning. Yes, because it makes them uncomfortable Yeah. Then why are we doing this. We need to win. We’ve us not winning. We don’t have the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court for quite a while. Us now picking up a couple of Senate seats for the last couple of years puts us out of potentially holding power again in the Senate. All the victories we avoided because we were afraid of these conversations, these icky conversations. Look where look what’s happening to this country now. And there’s a class aspect of this, which is the people who often find these positions and conversations icky tend to be more affluent and more educated and in working class neighborhoods, actually, people are quite willing to engage in these conversations for the most part. And they do all the time, and they do all the time. That’s the thing they do all the time. Like, I’ll give you an example, going back to the big ass truck, everyone’s like, oh, you look down, you’re looking down on Latino men by saying oh, they want some big [expletive] truck. Like, quite the opposite, actually. The problem that happens in elite Democratic politics is that we don’t think that the voter is that smart. We believe that we have to dumb things down when the voters are fairly sophisticated, they not use sophisticated language or anything else of that nature, but they know what they’re feeling, and they know when we’re throwing bullshit at, and they will vote in their own interests until we’re willing to accept that, until we’re willing to actually have real conversations, we’re going to be finding ourselves still on a declining support level. Let’s end by connecting your personal story with what you think the country’s next story should be. So as you mentioned grew up in Chicago. You grew up poor with a single mom and three sisters. And it’s the kind of story in broad brush that I think used to feel more typical than it does today. There’s less upward mobility, and I think a lot of Americans are understandably angry about a lot of things. And yet you made optimism absolutely central to your campaign. Here are the opening lines of the ad that introduced you to Arizona voters last year. Growing up poor, the only thing I really had was the American dream. An opportunity. It’s the one thing that we give every American, no matter where they are born in life. It was actually something to believe in and to fight for. I think for a lot of people, it’s an incredibly inspiring story, whether it’s one generation or whether it’s three generations, eight generations, whatever it is. Yeah and and it’s often connected to the immigrant experience. Your family is – It doesn’t have to be, though. Like my family is. It doesn’t have to be. But for most Americans, it is. And I guess I have to ask, do you still think we give that opportunity to every American. I still think that we can. I think that the things that used to exist, the infrastructure of hope, of opportunity is kind of slowly eroding. I think what we need to do as Democrats, as Americans is put that back together. For me it was I had a decent school. My mom was a secretary, wasn’t great pay, but wasn’t horrible pay. We had an affordable apartment. I slept in the living room, but we stayed in that apartment. It was in the same school district I had support all around me. I knew that if I got good grades, I could afford to go to college. I could get a scholarship. There was this idea that my sacrifice, my family’s sacrifice, was going to have an end result. What I hear, and this is why the campaign started the way it is because especially from working class people, they don’t feel that anymore. And the future of America has to go back, back to the future of where a Ruben Gallego felt comfortable and believing that the American dream was possible. We have to be able to tell the kid in Kentucky or the kid in California, you’re poor. Life sucks. But if you do this, you’re going to be fine, right. And until we actually not just talk about it, but put back the policies. And again, the infrastructure of how to become successful, how to get out of poverty. People aren’t going to believe it. Can I take a crack at telling you what I think. You think America’s next story should be sure. So it should be one part. Call it Rosa Parks. Moderation, respecting voters, meeting them where they are. Yeah, I think it’s one part populism. You talk about taking on the rich and powerful. I mean, you’ve said if you’re in Congress and you’re spending more time with the powerful than the powerless, you’re doing the job wrong. And I think it’s one part optimism. It is about the American dream. Is that fair. It’s very fair. Honestly, I think if I had to say what the future is it’s the American dream. It’s the thing that’s driven us forever. It’s what drove us to the shores here. It’s what drove us West. It’s what drove people from all over the world to come here. It’s what drove me some really, really hard days. Like, I remember one of the things that I remember. Like just being very angry as a young man. And it wasn’t because of the situation that I was in. My anger was the idea that I’m going to work. So hard and I may not succeed. And yeah, I just don’t think I want to have any other young man or woman have that feeling. Senator Ruben Gallego, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Oh, you got tears out of me, David. [Expletive] you. Oh sorry, son. Don’t use that word.