Journalist Eric Levitz astutely makes the point that Mark Kelly’s win in Arizona undermines Kyrsten Sinema’s entire approach to politics. More succinctly, his winning as a steadfast Democrat in sync with President Biden’s agenda proves that her obstructionist antics have been needlessly antagonistic toward her own party and are not necessary to win in a purple state like Arizona. (It bears repeating, Arizona is not West Virginia.) Other Democrats like Catherine Cortez Masto, Maggie Hassan, and John Fetterman also won their races in tough states – all while campaigning on the Democratic agenda – and in some cases, railing against Sinema’s filibuster.
See below.
ICYMI: NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Mark Kelly’s (Likely) Win Is an Indictment of Sinema’s Politics by Eric Levitz
- “Sinema, meanwhile, single-handedly gutted Biden’s plans for raising taxes on corporations and hedge-fund managers and withheld support for his partisan spending bill for even longer than Joe Manchin did. The former Green Party activist also styled herself as the filibuster’s staunchest defender.”
- “Mark Kelly nevertheless managed to win by more than twice as much as Sinema did in a “blue wave” year.”
- “But Kelly wasn’t the only vulnerable Democratic incumbent who toed the party line on Biden’s agenda and proceeded to outperform their party’s national margin. New Hampshire senator Maggie Hassan not only supported Biden’s Build Back Better plan, but also endorsed the president’s controversial cancellation of student debt. She won reelection by more than nine points.”
- “Votes are still being counted in Nevada but, as of this writing, Catherine Cortez Masto is favored to win reelection in the Silver State after serving as a loyal soldier for the Biden agenda.
- “Raphael Warnock was an unabashed advocate for Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID stimulus, his proposed democracy reforms, and his student-debt cancellation plan. And Warnock won a plurality of the vote in Georgia Tuesday.”
- “Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, John Fetterman won his Senate race by more than four points. The Keystone State’s lieutenant governor wasn’t in a position to vote for Biden’s agenda over the past two years. But he still advocated for the abolition of the filibuster, for the sake of getting more of the president’s progressive policies into law.
- “Had these Biden loyalists lost reelection Tuesday, purple-state Democrats might have concluded that toeing the party line on major legislation wasn’t worth the trouble. The fact that they all (apparently) got more votes than their opponents — at a time when their president’s approval rating was historically low and inflation was historically high — might stiffen some front-liners’ spines the next time Democrats have a trifecta.”
- “The point of politics, in my estimation, is to win power and then use it to improve the lives of ordinary people. Declining to use one’s power for progressive ends can only be justified if doing so is imperative for preserving that power. In debates over political expediency, those who fight to withhold aid to impoverished children, or care for the elderly, or labor rights for workers assume the burden of proof. Given Tuesday’s results, Sinema can’t meet it.”
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And it’s not just one magazine making the point. Many other influential media figures, Democratic operatives, and even voters are making similar arguments:
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