The most unpredictable Senate race on the 2024 map is unfolding in Arizona, where a high-profile Democrat is targeting Democratic-turned-independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Republicans are hoping to seize on those tensions in a state trending away from them.
“It’s grab your popcorn and watch,” said GOP state Rep. Justin Wilmeth, who described the race as “the Wild, Wild West.”
Sinema, who was elected to the Senate as a Democrat in 2018, became an independent in December, though she continues to caucus with her former party colleagues in the chamber. She has not yet said whether she will seek a second term in 2024.
But her broken ties with Democratic voters and groups that once backed her was on display Wednesday at what was billed as a “Sinema Sold Out” rally at the Arizona Capitol in Phoenix.
Carrying a papier-mâché pig as a prop to describe what they called Sinema’s courting of rich donors, members of progressive groups representing labor, immigrants and veterans called on the former Democrat to resign. Nearly all of the groups had organized and canvassed voters in the Arizona heat to elect Sinema in 2018. None of the group members CNN spoke with said they would support her again.
“We’re going to work to elect a new senator who does a far better job of representing Arizona,” said Alex Alvarez, executive director of Progress Arizona. “It’s time for Kyrsten Sinema to step aside. It’s become clear that Arizonans do not want her to run again.”
The contours of Arizona’s Senate race could take longer than other high-profile 2024 contests to develop. Arizona’s filing deadline is next April, and the state’s primaries aren’t until August next year.
Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb last month became the first major Republican to enter the…
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