Across the first quarter of 2023, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) raised $3.7 million in his campaign to unseat Kyrsten Sinema, the unpopular independent Senator who started her current stint in that legislative chamber as a Democrat.
Sinema hasn’t confirmed she is running for another term, but if she does, having changed her partisan registration from Democratic to independent means she won’t have to face Gallego or anybody else in a primary race. While in power, Sinema has often helped undercut the Democratic agenda in areas from voting rights and abortion access to the Inflation Reduction Act. In negotiations around that piece of legislation, she helped ensure tax opportunities for individuals in private equity investments were kept intact even though these promising provisions constitute what many deem loopholes. Elsewhere, she also prominently rejected a federal push for putting the minimum wage at $15 an hour, something it’s not that conceivably tough to support. John Fetterman did so. Sinema’s support for stifling filibuster rules helped sink other ambitions.
In the first quarter, a different fundraising figure began to circulate for Sinema before full reports were available, putting her cash on hand — or available money — at the close of the first quarter at over $9.9 million, $1.7 million above where she was when the last fundraising quarter ended. It’s been noted the fundraising Sinema has conducted suggests she is planning to angle for another term, although there’s been polling done showing her finishing way behind in a race with three major candidates including the incumbent, Gallego, and a GOP pick, who some have theorized could be Kari Lake. Lake was the Republican candidate for governor in Arizona who lost last year and has since unsuccessfully challenged that defeat in state courts, a dispute that remains ongoing — although without much of anything in terms of a win for Lake.
“Despite getting bankrolled by Wall Street lobbyists and corporate executives, Sinema couldn’t come close to our grassroots fundraising operation,” Gallego said in a prepared statement to media that was shared by the publication known as The Hill. “I’m honored to have earned the trust and support of grassroots donors across the Arizona. Today’s numbers make it clear: everyday Arizonans are with us. We have a long road ahead, but together we’re unstoppable.” Most of those who donated in the first quarter kept their giving low enough that they are legally permitted to do so again.
