Sinema losing popularity among Arizona Democrats
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., a centrist Democratic senator vital to the fate of President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” agenda, departs the Senate before meeting with Biden at the White House, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021. Sinema and fellow moderate, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., have balked at the price tag and are now under pressure to show Biden what size package they could live with. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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(The Hill) — Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) could be in serious trouble with Democratic voters when she goes up for reelection in 2024.
A new Arizona Public Opinion Pulse conducted by the Phoenix-based OH Predictive Insights found that nearly three-quarters of Arizona Democratic voters – 72 percent – want a Democrat other than Sinema as their U.S. senator. Only 26 percent say they would prefer Sinema.
That finding bears out when Sinema’s strength is tested against a handful of potential primary rivals.
In a hypothetical matchup, Sinema trails Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) 24 percent to 47 percent, according to the poll. Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.) leads Sinema by a similar margin, while Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman holds a 20-point edge over Sinema.
“Sen. Sinema’s growing unpopularity with voters from within her own party could prove fatal in 2024 when she will have to ask for Democrats’ support for renomination,” Mike Noble, the chief of research at OH Predictive Insights, said.
The poll reflects the growing Democratic frustration with Sinema, who has drawn the ire of many in her party for holding up passage of President Joe Biden’s sweeping social policy and climate change bill.
In recent weeks, calls to recruit a primary challenger to Sinema have grown among the Democratic Party’s grassroots and progressive wing, who are eager for the party’s razor-thin congressional majorities to quickly enact an expansive policy agenda.
In a reflection of that Democratic frustration, Sinema is more popular among Republican voters in Arizona than she is among voters in her own party, according to the poll.
Overall, 42 percent of Arizona voters view her favorably and 45 percent view her unfavorably.
Just 42 percent of Democratic voters have a favorable view of Sinema, while 47 percent say they have an unfavorable view of her, according to the poll. Among Republicans, however, 48 percent view her favorably while 45 percent view her unfavorably, putting her slightly above water with voters of the opposing party.
The Arizona Public Opinion Pulse survey was conducted as an online opt-in panel and is based on responses from 713 registered voters in Arizona gathered from Nov. 1-8. It has a margin of sampling error of +/-3.7 percentage points.
