Former Democrat Kyrsten Sinema raised $200K from Republican megadonors

Out Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), who used to be a Democrat, raised $197,400 from donors who usually give to Republican campaigns, according to her campaign’s most recent financial filings.

Sinema has not yet said whether she is running for reelection next year, but her campaign’s filings show that she has around $10.8 million in campaign cash in reserve if she chooses to run.

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Her third-quarter fundraising report showed that she raised just over $800,000, less than the $2.1 million she raised in the first quarter and the $1.6 million she raised in the second quarter.

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The donations her campaign has received have also been coming from fewer sources, including megadonors who usually fund Republican campaigns. Many of the donors have given to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) Senate Leadership Fund.

Those donors include Harlan Crow, a conservative real estate developer whose relationship with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has raised hackles. He has given the maximum allowed amount of $6,600 to Sinema this election cycle.

“What with every poll showing Sinema to be a loser and a spoiler in the Arizona Senate race, it’s clear her pool of donors is shrinking, and all that’s left are the same Republicans who fund extreme attack ads against her former Democratic colleagues and [Senate Majority] Leader [Chuck] Schumer,” Replace Sinema senior advisor Sacha Haworth told The Messenger.

Sinema was first elected to the Senate in 2018 as a Democrat and often refused to support initiatives favored by Congressional Democrats and later by President Joe Biden. She eventually earned the title of “most detested” politician in the U.S. due to her lack of support for even local Democrats in Arizona.

Late last year, she announced that she was leaving the Democratic party, and she started publicly criticizing Democrats, telling Republican lobbyists at one event that strategy meetings with Democrats were boring. “Old dudes are eating Jell-O, everyone is talking about how great they are,” she said.

A recent poll from the Democratic-leaning firm Public Policy Polling found that Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) – the likely Democratic nominee in the 2024 Senate race in Arizona – got 41% support, former gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, a potential Republican nominee, got 36%, and Sinema got 15% in a three-way contest.

Last month, NBC News reported that Sinema sent a memo to donors about how she plans to win reelection, even though she hasn’t declared her candidacy yet. The document, titled “Kyrsten’s Path to Victory,” says that she’ll try to get 10% to 20% of Democrats, 60% to 70% of independents, and 25% to 35% of Republicans to vote for her.

“If the parties nominate extremists, as expected, Kyrsten will win a majority of IND, at least a third of REP and a percentage of DEM voters — making her the first Independent to win a three-way statewide race in American history,” the document said.

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