Sinema, D-Ariz., is alienating herself from some of her party’s most powerful politicians and financiers after playing a pivotal role in delaying voting rights legislation that many Democrats believe is critical to democracy’s survival. The vote is a symbolic rebuke to the woman who only three years ago led the party to the Arizona Senate for the first time in a decade. Donors have threatened to withhold their support. Despite the fact that she will not be on the ballot until 2024, several organizations are already raising funds for a potential primary challenge. To attract attention to Sinema’s decision, young activists are organizing a second hunger strike according to Newsmax.
The acts foreshadow the intense resistance Sinema will almost certainly encounter inside her own party in the two years before she campaigns for politics again. Many Democrats in her own state are determined to deny her reelection because of her independence, which has given her enormous influence over the agenda in Washington. Supporters of Sinema believe that no one who has followed her for the past decade should be surprised by her present position. She opposed her party in the House on several occasions, ran an aggressively moderate Senate campaign, and has never wavered in her support for the filibuster.
Her authority stems from the Senate’s 50-50 divide, which allows any senator to veto legislation, which Sinema has regularly done. However, unlike Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., the other Senate moderate stymieing Democratic ambitions, she must deal with political realities. Manchin is unlikely to face a progressive challenger in 2020, despite representing a state that former President Donald Trump carried by nearly 39 percentage points. Democrats, on the other hand, are on the rise in Arizona. Joe Biden was the first Democrat to win the state since 1996, and the Democratic Party is keen to expand on his achievement. This makes it more difficult for a Democrat in this position, particularly in a primary, to just dismiss the left.
Sinema’s struggle with the left has overshadowed Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who will run for reelection to the seat he won in a special election in 2022. Kelly avoided taking a position on the filibuster during his 2020 campaign and first year in office, owing to Sinema’s dominance. Kelly endorsed a one-time workaround to approve the voting rights measure only hours before he had to vote on Wednesday. The Arizona Democratic Party will meet on Saturday, and leaders plan to openly attack Sinema, maybe through a vote of no confidence or a censure.
