Poll: Arizona Dems Want Someone Other Than Sen. Sinema

A vast majority of Arizona Democrat voters want a Democrat other than Sen. Kyrsten Sinema as their U.S. senator, according to an Arizona Public Opinion Pulse poll released on Monday.

Only 26% of Democrats say they would prefer Sinema, while 72% said they want someone else from the party as their senator.

The poll reflects the increasing frustration within Sinema's own party over the Democrat senator holding up the passage of President Joe Biden’s budget bill, which includes sweeping reforms in social policy and climate change, The Hill reports.

This anger with Sinema led growing numbers among the Democratic Party’s grassroots and progressive wings to recruit a primary challenge against her.

Mike Noble, the chief of research at OH Predictive Insights, which conducted the survey, said "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 re-nomination."

This has made Sinema more popular among Republican voters in Arizona than she is among voters in her own party, according to the poll, with just 42% of Democrat voters having a favorable view of her, while 47% say they have an unfavorable view.

Among Republicans, 48% view her favorably while 45% view her unfavorably.

Other results from the poll illustrate Sinema’s unpopularity among fellow Democrats.

• In a hypothetical primary match-up against other Democrats, Sinema trails Rep. Rueben Gallego 47% to 24%.
• Rep. Greg Stanton leads Sinema by a similar margin, and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman also holds a 20-point edge over her.

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 to 8. It has a margin of sampling error of 3.7 percentage points.

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