Progressives want Kyrsten Sinema out. But history points to primary heartbreak

Progressives despise no fellow Democratic senator more than Kyrsten Sinema. They may feel frustration towards Sen Joe Manchin, but he hails from West Virginia, where every county voted for Donald Trump, and the state has been trending rightward for the past two decades. So, many think he has a legitimate excuse when he frequently stymies their agenda, opposes filibuster reform, worries about the cost of their massive social spending bill and effectively killed their election reform bill.

But Ms Sinema is from Arizona, and her election in 2018 was seen as the first crack in the wall that led to Democrats’ victory there in 2020. Like Mr Manchin, Ms Sinema opposes ending the filibuster and said she opposes spending $3.5 trillion on Democrats’ social spending bill on items like child care, tuition-free community college, home care for elderly and disabled people, and including dental, hearing and vision coverage to Medicare. But, unlike Mr Manchin, who has proposed spending around $1.5 trillion on the package, Ms Sinema hasn’t given a price tag that would be comfortable for her.

The left-wing of the Democratic Party’s frustration with Ms Sinema has led some to wonder whether they could stage a primary challenge to her, not unlike the one Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pulled off against Joe Crowley in 2018 in a House race, or Rep Cori Bush did in Missouri last year. Unlike West Virginia, Arizona has been trending Democratic. But just because some left-leaning Democrats may not like Ms Sinema, doesn’t mean that it would not be incredibly arduous to stage a primary challenge against her.