Kyrsten Sinema? She’s toast.
In October 2021, Data for Progress published poll findings that captured the extent of Arizona Democratic primary voters’ dissatisfaction with Senator Kyrsten Sinema: She had the highest unfavorability rating of any elected Democrat tested in the state, and she was poised to lose her 2024 primary by a wide margin.
New Data for Progress polling finds that, since October, Sinema’s favorability has dipped even further — and that Gallego’s potential to secure a primary victory has increased.
And the news gets worse from there.
Likely primary Democratic voters in Arizona give President Biden and Senator Mark Kelly high marks in the 80th percentile. Self-identified Democrats give both of them even higher marks in the 90th percentile.
Sinema’s favorability among Democrats? NEGATIVE 57 PERCENT!
And 19% favorable subtracted by a whopping 79% unfavorable comes to -57%. Out of the 19% favorable, only 7% identified as “very favorable.” This tracks similarly to the Civiqs poll done through Daily Kos, which shows Sinema with an 8% favorability rating among Democrats. That’s lower than … well, just about everybody.
If the election was held today, her likely challenger, Representative Ruben Gallego, is poised to beat Sinema 74% to 16%. Even that pathetic 16% is better than she is polling with likely voters statewide. Turns out that obstructing the Democratic agenda as a Democrat in a purple state maybe wasn’t the most savvy move the Party City candidate could have made. Her thought process was that Democrats would stick with her no matter what she did, but maybe she could bring some conservatives into her tent for primary season. That didn’t work, as she is highly disliked by moderates, and absolutely hated by progressives that were key to her victory last time. Conservatives have their own primary to worry about, thank you very much.
The fact is that you can’t win with those kinds of numbers, and no amount of money from her corporate bribes to tank a living wage or Build Back Better is going to save her. What exactly is she going to spend that money on anyway? Ads to tout how she did McConnell’s bidding? Canvassers to convince the very people she’s insulted to vote for her again?
By the way, with numbers like these, Gallego is going to have no problem making up the difference. I don’t know if she understands politics, but donors tend to back winners. The top donors have already told her not to expect their help next time, and in fact, some have demanded she refund their contributions.
Is there anything Sinema could have done to reverse this fortune? Why, yes, according to the poll:
A +47-point margin of voters state they would be more likely to vote for Sinema if she voted to allow a simple majority in the Senate to pass voting rights legislation – but that ship has sailed. In addition, 79 percent of likely Democratic primary voters state that, were Sinema to continue preserving the filibuster, they would vote for a candidate in 2024 who would vote to remove it.
She threw away any hope of reelection with her decision to be an obstacle on voting rights during an unprecedented attack on minority voters and our democracy.
How in the world would anyone with a semblance of intelligence think that was a good strategy? Damn right people are outraged. The filibuster has been altered many times to allow for Republican priorities, such as tax cuts for the wealthy and unqualified conservative judges. Yet we can’t protect our sacred right to vote?
The filibuster, by the way, is on its way out regardless. Either the Democrats will get the people we need to get rid of it, or the Republicans will destroy it after McConnell because their base is getting antsy as well. Since its days are numbered, we might as well have been the ones to kill it so we could save the Republic.
Oh well, at least a humiliating primary loss with Sinema will be a small consolation prize. Then we can all laugh again when she tries to run for president. It’s fine to do that, because she’s truly an awful person.