“Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is not a maverick like John McCain, who was still a stout Republican. She will pay for that with Democrats.”
The numbers are in, and they show Sen. Kyrsten Sinema stands no chance of reelection in 2024 either against a Democrat like Ruben Gallego or Republican like Kari Lake. In an op-ed for the Arizona Republic, former deputy assistant treasury secretary and author George Tyler documents Sinema’s road toward political irrelevance. Arizona can see right through Sinema’s empty rhetoric, and they deserve more than being second to special interests.
“Kyrsten Sinema is deeply unpopular because she has proven she’s only out for herself. That truth is reflected in who gives money to her – nearly half of her campaign haul came from Wall Street, and only 5% from Arizonans. Sinema has no path to reelection, Ruben Gallego is currently the frontrunner, and the only thing that’s certain is that she might allow an extremist Republican like Kari Lake to win. So the question is, as the most unpopular politician in Arizona, why does Sinema think the seat belongs to her? She’s nothing but a spoiler, even this early on.” – Sacha Haworth, senior advisor and spokesperson for Replace Sinema PAC
ICYMI
Arizona Republic: Is Sen. Kyrsten Sinema on her way to becoming politically irrelevant?Opinion: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is not a maverick like John McCain, who was still a stout Republican. She will pay for that with Democrats.
by George Tyler – February 1, 2023
EXCERPTS:
Democrats have seen this movie before, and it will not end well for Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who has left the Party.
[…]
Sinema is not a maverick in the mold of Sen. John McCain. McCain was a stout Republican – its presidential nominee in 2008 – who rarely bucked his party. Sure, he famously derailed Republican intention to strip health care from 31 million Americans in July 2017.
But McCain’s vote was principled: he traditionally favored government health programs, including sponsoring the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, and spent years as a patient in the federal health system.[…]
In contrast, Sinema has morphed from a 2001 Phoenix City Council candidate rejecting campaign donations as “bribery” to becoming by 2021 a corporate donor darling. Her opposition to Democrats lowering drug prices, taxing hedge funds or raising minimum wages perplex old allies.
She even embraced the filibuster despised by the Founding Fathers, while supporting the Chamber of Commerce in suppressing wages and Republican senators in torpedoing voting rights and abortion rights protections.
True, those shifts have provided big paydays. Corporate and billionaire conservative donations to her have soared, with 90% of her individual donations now from out-of-state.
How big a payday? Rather amazingly, Sinema was the third-largest recipient of pharmaceutical and banking industry contributions in 2021, even outraising nearly all Republican senators.
[…]
Sinema’s only path to reelection had been to blackmail Arizona Democrats into not nominating their own candidate in 2024. But that option is foreclosed by Democratic U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego’s decision to enter the Senate race.
Sinema’s odds of reelection as an independent are grim. She is very unpopular with Democrats, some 81% of whom believe “Sinema works more for special interests” than for the party’s interests.
[…]
The prideful Sinema’s best course to avoid ballot embarrassment is to follow Lieberman in becoming a lobbyist.