FLASHBACK: Arizona Dem Senate candidate called Trump voters ‘dumb’: ‘Worst people in the world’

A House Democrat running for Senate in a key swing state bashed voters who supported then-President-elect Donald Trump in a resurfaced interview.

“I think Donald Trump ran a xenophobic campaign that drew out the worst people in the world that we are not going to appeal to and never will,” Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said in a 2016 interview directly after Trump won the presidential election.

Gallego also said in the interview that he will try to “protect” Americans from the policies of Trump, including those who were “dumb enough” to vote for him.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Gallego campaign for comment but did not receive a response. 

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Rep. Ruben Gallego bashed then-President-elect Donald Trump supporters in a 2016 interview. (Getty Images)

“Ruben Gallego thinks you are a bad person if you support President Trump,” NRSC spokesperson Tate Mitchell told Fox News Digital. “Gallego is running to be a Senator for the far-left, not all of Arizona.”

The presidential race in Arizona is expected to be one of the closest in the country with the Real Clear Politics (RCP) average showing Trump with a tight lead, but the RCP average also shows that Gallego has a lead over his GOP opponent, Kari Lake.

On the campaign trail, Gallego has been a fierce critic of Trump despite the former president’s popularity in the state.

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Rep. Ruben Gallego. (Getty Images)

Gallego called Trump a “craven politician” in an interview with MSNBC earlier this year and has routinely gone after the former president on social media, including posts suggesting Trump and Lake are threats to democracy.

Lake has made the case on the campaign trail that Gallego is a rubber stamp for a Biden-Harris administration.

“President Trump’s consistently strong lead in Arizona proves that Arizonans are tired of and dissatisfied with the policies of Kamala Harris and Ruben Gallego that have caused record-high inflation and made our state less safe by opening the border to millions of unchecked illegal immigrants,” a Lake spokesperson told Fox News Digital earlier this year. 

“As voters learn the truth about Gallego’s voting record and the fact that he has voted for Biden-Harris policies 100% of the time, they will reject Radical Ruben just as they reject Kamala Harris.”

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U.S. Senate Candidate Kari Lake (R-AZ) speaks during Day 2 of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on July 16, 2024. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)

The Cook Political Report ranks the Arizona Senate race as “Lean Democrat.”

Fox News Digital’s Julia Johnson contributed to this report