Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the Arizona independent who was originally elected as a Democrat but has since somewhat distanced herself from the party, raised way less than Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) in the first quarter of this year, according to newly available numbers. Although there are still primaries, Gallego is the main Democratic candidate ahead of the election next year in which Sinema’s seat will be at stake.
Because Sinema switched her partisan affiliation from Democratic to independent, she won’t have to face Gallego or anybody else in a primary if she goes through with running for another term — and it was, in fact, well-known before she made that change that Democrats were harboring ambitions of toppling her in the primaries. Sinema raised $2.1 million in the first quarter of this year, most of which came from high-dollar donations — and all of which totaled well behind the $3.7 million Gallego raised in the same period, although Sinema has more cash on hand, meaning available funds.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of the donations Sinema reported across the last quarter were from employees of investment and equity companies, some of whom she has directly helped through her work to ensure so-called loopholes allowing lower tax rates for some income that private equity professionals make were left intact.
Polling has shown that Sinema would likely lose if she runs for re-election, although such an observation certainly hasn’t stopped certain candidates in other races, like Asa Hutchinson and Nikki Haley in the GOP presidential primary, a race in which Trump continues to lead (mostly).
There is now a high-profile GOP name for the contest thanks to a campaign announcement from Mark Lamb, the sheriff in Pinal County, Arizona. Lamb seems like a pretty predictable right-winger, considering his associations, including with Donald Trump and right-wing activist Kirk Cameron, who also has a history as an actor. Lamb recently participated in a library event with Cameron that allegedly saw hundreds of people in attendance and where Cameron said they “talked openly about proven solutions to our country’s problems (including the border crisis), returning to good and godly values, and the importance of searching for the truth.” Lamb also has written a children’s book, like for some reason became popular among right-wing figures.
