In the Arizona Senate race, Kari Lake invents a connection between Ruben Gallego and drug cartels

Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake made a baseless connection between her Democratic opponent and Mexican drug cartels during a recent interview, accusing U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego of being “controlled by the cartels.”

Speaking to Newsmax host Greg Kelly on September 27, Lake theorized a link between Gallego and drug cartels, as his father was arrested for drug crimes when Gallego was a child.

“I want to confront the cartels,” Lake said. ‘He’s controlled by the cartels. His own father was a Colombian drug trafficker, so he has ties to the cartel.”

Gallego’s father has a criminal past, but Lake gets the facts wrong, and her claim that Gallego has ties to foreign criminal organizations lacks evidence.

First of all, Gallego’s father is not Colombian. He was originally from Mexico and immigrated to the US as a teenager, according to Gallego’s 2021 memoir, “They Called Us ‘Lucky.'”. Gallego’s mother’s family came to the U.S. from Colombia when she was a teenager, Gallego wrote.

Gallego’s parents divorced when he was in high school. Gallego wrote that his father was almost completely absent from his life after the divorce, calling into question Lake’s accusation that Gallego has “ties to the cartel” through his father.

We asked Lake’s campaign to provide evidence to support her claim about Gallego, but received no response.

A spokesperson for Gallego’s campaign said in a statement that the claim was a “disgusting, false attack.”

“Ruben has a clear track record of combating the illicit drug trade and addressing the fentanyl crisis,” the campaign spokesman said.

After his parents divorced, Gallego wrote that he rarely saw his father and his mother raised him and his siblings. He said he later learned that his father and his father’s cousin had “got involved in the drug trade.” The book makes no direct mention of cartels.

“If my father made any money from his involvement, we never saw it,” he wrote. “Eventually my father was caught and found guilty of misdemeanor possession with intent to sell cocaine and marijuana. My uncle made it worse: he was shot and killed in Mexico. I never found out, and I don’t care.”

PolitiFact could not independently verify Gallego’s account of his father’s background and criminal past.

Gallego later gave another anecdote in his book about his fraught relationship with his father. Gallego joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 2000, and after graduating boot camp, his father attended his graduation ceremony — the first time they had seen each other in years.

“Seeing him at the graduation infuriated me, and still does,” Gallego wrote. “I felt like he wanted to steal part of my achievements, as if he was responsible for all the work I had done to get this far. … I avoided him and stayed close to my mother and sisters, I I’ve hardly heard anything from him since.”

Gallego wrote that he changed his last name from his father’s last name to his mother’s maiden name after leaving the Marines. He said he changed his name because he “didn’t want to be associated with my father, even symbolically,” and he was “ashamed of his crimes and angry at him for abandoning us.”

Our statement

Lake said Gallego “is controlled by the cartels. His own father was a Colombian drug trafficker, so he has ties to the cartel.”

Gallego’s father was an immigrant from Mexico, not Colombia. According to Gallego’s 2021 book, he was “in the drug trade”, and was arrested for possession of cocaine and marijuana with intent to distribute when Gallego was a child.

But Gallego’s father has been largely absent from Gallego’s life since Gallego was in high school and his parents divorced. Gallego’s book makes it clear that he has little contact with his father, and he wrote that he had “barely heard from him” as an adult.

There is no evidence that Gallego has “cartel ties” due to his father’s criminal past. Lake’s campaign provided no evidence to support that claim.

We rate this statement Pants on Fire!

PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this fact check.