How Republicans hope to split up the Democratic vote in key Senate race: report

20 November 2023

If centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona) runs for reelection as an independent, it is entirely possible that Arizona will see a three-way U.S. Senate race in 2024 that will find her up against liberal Rep. Ruben Gallego (who is seeking the Democratic nomination) and far-right MAGA Republican Kari Lake (who lost Arizona's 2022 gubernatorial race to Democratic now-Gov. Katie Hobbs).

Political strategists are both wondering if a Sinema reelection campaign would take more votes from the Democratic nominee or the GOP nominee. The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), according to Politico's Rachel Bade, is hoping that a nasty attack ad will divide Democratic votes in that race.

"NRSC operatives have been fretting about polls that have shown Sinema, an independent, pulling in nearly twice as many Republican voters as Democrats in a three-way race," Bade explains in an article published on November 20. "So in a bid to keep GOP voters behind the GOP nominee while splitting the Democratic vote, they’re launching a new digital ad Monday boosting Sinema’s liberal bona fides while hammering Rep. Ruben Gallego, the likely Democratic nominee."

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Bade continues, "The new ad, titled 'A Choice,' paints Sinema as being firmly behind President Joe Biden and his legislative agenda, voting with the president '100 percent' of the time and backing his climate initiatives in the Inflation Reduction Act…. Conversely, the ad slams Gallego — whom the NRSC has nicknamed 'Rotten Ruben' — in intensely personal terms."

Bade notes that the ad "points out that Gallego divorced his ex-wife, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, in 2016 just a few weeks before she gave birth to their first child, then blasts him for marrying a lobbyist, Sydney Barron, several years later." The ad, Bade observes, also attacks Gallego as a "deadbeat dad" but doesn't offer any "evidence to support the claim."

Read Politico's full report at this link.

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