Democrat Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is more popular with Arizona Republicans than her own party, according to a new poll.
Sinema and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin have been under fire from their party for opposing Democrat efforts to abolish the filibuster so that they could pass voting legislation.
According to the new poll from the non-partisan firm OH Predictive Insights, 44 percent of Arizona Republican voters said they have a favorable view of Sinema, compared to just 42 percent of the state’s Democratic voters who said the same.
“She’s looking more and more like a Democratic version of John McCain than a traditional Democrat,” Mike Noble, OH Predictive Insight’s chief pollster, said of Sinema.
Among independents, Sinema currently has 30 percent approval compared to 48 percent who said that they have an unfavorable view of her.
Overall, 39 percent of those polled had a favorable view of Sinema.
The Hill reports, “by contrast, nearly 3 in 4 Democrats polled — 74 percent — said they view Sen. Mark Kelly (D) favorably, the poll found. At the same time, only 21 percent of Republican voters view Kelly, who is up for reelection later this year, in a favorable light.”
“The 30-point gap between Kelly’s ratings and Sinema’s numbers with members of their own party is surprising in a state where they are the first two members of their party to hold Senate seats in a generation — but it may be less surprising in Arizona itself, where senators have often had a contentious relationship with voters who are supposed to make up their base,” the report added.
The report also noted that OH Predictive Insights previously found Sinema’s favorable rating among Democrats to be at 54 percent in May 2021 and at 42 percent in November. Her unfavorable rating has also gone up one point among Democrats since November, from 47 percent to 48 percent.
Timcast has reached out to Sinema’s office for comment and will update this story if one is provided.
The OH Predictive Insights survey was conducted Jan. 11-13 among 855 registered voters, for an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points. The margin of error among subgroups of Democratic, Republican and independent voters is higher.
