Months after Democrat Kyrsten Sinema outlasted Republican Martha McSally in a brutal campaign for the Senate in Arizona, their relationship is mired in acrimony.
Sinema narrowly defeated McSally in a midterm election, becoming the first Democrat in a generation to capture an Arizona Senate seat. The contest was marked by personal recriminations, with McSally accusing Sinema of treason and Sinema charging that McSally sought to block access to healthcare. Now, six weeks into the new Congress, these dynamic women barely speak, aligned only in their belief that the other crossed the line of political decency.
“They’re not friends,” Randy Pullen, former chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, told the Washington Examiner.
Sinema, 42, is the first openly bisexual member of Congress. McSally, 52, an Air Force veteran, is the first female pilot in the history of the service to fly combat missions.
But the Sinema-McSally rivalry is more than just an intriguing postscript to an unusually combative campaign.
In a twist, they ended up seatmates on Capitol Hill this year after Republican Gov. Doug Ducey appointed McSally to fill a Senate vacancy. Forced to collaborate on Arizona issues, their personal interactions are otherwise frosty and not expected to thaw. McSally is competing to hold her seat in a 2020 special election, and Sinema is readying to beat her again, this time by boosting her colleague’s eventual Democratic challenger.
Sinema and McSally have co-sponsored public lands legislation important to Arizona. But neither senator is disputing that their relationship is prickly. McSally’s team declined to comment. Sinema’s office did comment, but only with a curt statement affirming the senator’s commitment to act in the best interest of her state.
“Kyrsten is a professional and will work with anyone to get things done for Arizona,” Sinema spokesman John LaBombard said.
To the extent tensions might have eased, Mark Kelly announcing Tuesday that he is running against McSally could inflame matters.
Kelly, an astronaut and military combat veteran, is not a random Democrat. He’s the husband of heralded Democrat Gabby Giffords, a former congresswoman. Giffords left office in 2011 after surviving an assassination attempt, and along with Kelly, proceeded to become a nationally recognized gun control advocate. And Giffords and Sinema have a pre-existing connection that dates back several years.
McSally, meanwhile, advanced to Congress by defeating Giffords’ anointed successor, Democrat Ron Barber, a top aide to his predecessor when she was shot.
Rep. Ruben Gallego is still considering a Senate bid and could spark a competitive Democratic primary. But with Kelly, a top Democratic recruit, already in the race, the 2020 contest could become another personal grudge match between Arizona’s two incumbent senators, even though Sinema isn’t on the ballot.
McSally might be spared a Republican primary challenger, at least. Rep. Paul Gosar, who was mulling a bid, opted to back McSally.
“The Arizona Republican delegation is unified in its support for Sen. McSally,” Gosar said in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner.
Sinema and McSally have a few things in common. They overlapped as House members, compiling centrist voting records during much of their time in the chamber, and are ambitious, groundbreaking politicians unafraid to mix it up. But they have never had much of a relationship.
A Republican operative in Arizona said the 2018 campaign was among the more heated he’s observed, even in an era of hyper-partisanship and blurred standards of acceptable public behavior. A Democratic strategist who also closely monitored the race agreed. “This was the most negative campaign of the cycle,” this insider said. “It was relentless.”
