Arizona Democratic Senate candidate Ruben Gallego, who is trying to unseat Senator Kyrsten Sinema, says ‘no one’ in the state ‘really talked to her’, she joined the upper house
Ruben Gallego on Thursday criticized Senator Sinema for what he said was her inattention to Arizona.
“She doesn’t talk to Arizonans anymore. She doesn’t really talk to them anymore,” he said on CNN.
Gallego announced Monday that he would seek the Democratic nomination for the Arizona Senate.
Arizona Democratic Senate candidate Ruben Gallego on Thursday lambasted independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema for her professional performance, arguing that the lawmaker is “barely” seen in the state and remarking that she “no longer speaks to Arizonans”.
During an appearance on CNN’s “This Morning,” Gallego — a congressman who has represented a Phoenix-based district since 2015 — told co-anchor Don Lemon that Sinema isn’t “popular with anyone anymore.”
“Nobody in Arizona has really spoken to her in the last four years. That’s why she’s where she is,” he said, arguing that she wouldn’t have been able to win a primary. of the Democratic Party. “She really doesn’t have anything off the cuff. We barely see her in Arizona. She cut everybody off unless you’re a big donor.”
“What matters is that she doesn’t talk to the people of Arizona anymore. She doesn’t really talk to them anymore,” he added.
Gallego launched his candidacy ahead of the 2024 Democratic primary and general election in Arizona on Monday — where he hopes to lead the party to victory in the critical swing state.
The caveat: Sinema served in the US House as a Democrat for three terms and was elected to the Senate seat as a Democratic midterm candidate in 2018, but became an independent last December .
At the time, Democrats immediately feared Sinema would endanger the shaky 51-49 majority they had won after the 2022 midterms, but she claimed her electoral record would not change and stressed her independence longtime as a legislator.
“National political parties have taken our politics further than I’ve ever seen. I want to take some of that kind of poison out of our politics,” she said in a CNN interview last month. the latter explaining her decision to become an Independent. “I want to start working on the problems again, working together to try to solve these challenges.”
Since the announcement, Sinema has so far continued to caucus with Senate Democrats, but his change still puts the party in a bind.
Sinema has yet to announce her intention to run for re-election, but if she goes ahead with a bid for a second term, party leaders would face the dilemma of backing her or opting for Gallego – which would be the choice of many grassroots Democrats. , especially among its progressive wing.
Such a contest would pit Gallego and Sinema against a Republican candidate, creating an unpredictable three-way race. Potential GOP candidates in the 2024 Senate election include Kari Lake, the party’s gubernatorial nominee last fall, as well as 2022 Senate nominee Blake Masters and 2022 gubernatorial nominee Karrin Taylor Robson.
Sinema did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
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