On Wednesday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) said that backing a progressive primary challenger to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona) would be the “easiest decision” she would ever have to make.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan, Ocasio-Cortez said that four years into her six-year term, the conservative Democrat hasn’t “given a compelling case as to why she should be renominated as the Democratic nominee” in Arizona.
“She has proven herself an obstacle to the right to vote in the United States, she is not an ally on civil rights,” Ocasio-Cortez said, adding that Sinema has become a “threat” to securing a stable democracy in the U.S. “She is not standing up to corporate interests – in fact, she is a profound ally to them … she is not doing what voters in Arizona sent her to do.”
New York progressive, Elizabeth Sinema, stated that she would gladly support a progressive opponent to Sinema if one should arise in the 2020 election for Sinema’s reelection.
“If it came down to someone like Ruben Gallego and Kyrsten Sinema, I think that would be the easiest decision I would ever have to make,” she said. “There is no comparison…. We need someone that has more allegiance to the actual people of this country than special interests.”
Representative Gallego is a Phoenix-based Democratic Congress member. an early progressive favoriteSinema to a challenge He recently said that he has been encouraged by political figures of all stripes – lawmakers, unions, Democratic advocacy groups and donors – to run against Sinema in two years.
A recent poll by Data for ProgressIt was found that Sinema would lose to Gallego if the primary were held right now. Gallego would win among likely Arizona Democratic primary voters with 74%, and Sinema with just 16%. The poll found that Sinema, who was up against Tucson Mayor Regina Romero but with a smaller profile, would still lose. She received only 17 per cent of the vote.
If the polling data is reflective of the state’s Democratic populace, it means that Sinema has only gotten less popular since last October, when a Similar pollData for Progress’s poll found that Gallego would win from 62 to 23 Percent among Democratic primary voters. The poll found that Sinema received less support than Romero and other hypothetical challengers.
During the past year, Democrats have seen a dramatic drop in support for Sinema. The poll from last October found that Sinema’s job approval is dismal, with only 25 percent approval and 70 percent disapproval. She lost the support of major Democratic groups earlier this month. like Emily’s List, a prominent abortion rights political action committee that helps to elect female Democratic candidates for office.
Sinema even lost support from her party in Arizona last week, as the Arizona Democratic Party Voted to censure the lawmakerFriday. While they have had frustrations with Sinema over her opposition to filibuster abolition or reform, the party said, Sinema’s obstruction of voting rights legislation last week was a step too far.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) praised the party’s decision earlier this week, calling the move “exactly right.” Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-West Virginia) vote against changing filibuster rules to pass voting rights legislation was “a terrible, terrible vote” and “pathetic,” Sanders said. The progressive lawmaker indicated last week that he was open for primary challengers to Sinema or Manchin.
