Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is perturbing the left by understanding her 7 million constituents.
The Arizona Democrat remains a key obstacle to passing the $3.5 trillion spending extravaganza crucial to President Joe Biden’s economic agenda.
Statement on Budget Reconciliation Negotiations pic.twitter.com/QZpaMXxm7q
— Kyrsten Sinema (@SenatorSinema) September 30, 2021
Sinema’s opposition places the profligate legislation in peril, yet should pay dividends with much of the Grand Canyon State’s politically divided electorate.
The first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate from Arizona in 30 years enjoys a positive overall job rating, placing her in a better position than Mark Kelly, the state’s other Democrat senator.
Kelly has so far been a rubber stamp for the Biden agenda and is on board with the mammoth package. He’s up for re-election next year, and his favorables with Republican and independent voters are lower than Sinema’s. She is above water with independents and, most impressively, only down a few points among Republicans.
This is pretty incredible, Sinema racking up 40% favorability from Rs and 42% from Is in Arizona, almost like she knows what she’s doing! https://t.co/qGDVJCLW1F pic.twitter.com/XhojQEuirD
— Patrick T. Brown (@PTBwrites) September 30, 2021
In a state Biden won by only 10,000 votes last year, it seems Sinema’s strategy is a recipe for winning re-election.
That stubbornness, however, has caused the far left to seek primary challengers against Sinema in 2024, while simultaneously generating ignorance and rage from Democrat colleagues desperate to throw trillions at domestic programs.
“Until Sen. Sinema stops being cute and starts doing her job and leading for the people of Arizona, we’re simply not going to be able to move the president’s agenda forward,” Rep. Katie Porter said this week.
But Porter, who represents a wealthy, heavily liberal district in California, is as clueless as she is condescending.
Sinema’s decision to join West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and block efforts to get a public commitment for so-called reconciliation shows her independent streak and ability to thread the needle.
“I think she’s looking toward 2024 and re-election in a state that will probably go red again,” vice chairman of Arizona Legislative District 22 Frank Rizzo, who’s known Sinema for over two decades, told PJ Media. “She probably thinks Mark Kelly will lose in 2022 and she will be alone. She has been using something called common sense lately, which does not seem to be a liberal trait.”
To wit, Sinema spokesman John LaBombard recently told CNN that “Kyrsten has always promised Arizonans she would be an independent voice for the state — not for either political party. She’s delivered on that promise and has always been honest about where she stands.”
Hopefully, the first-term senator continues to stand strong and consistent in the face of typical left-wing intolerance.
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