'A loser and a spoiler': Kyrsten Sinema raises almost $200K from major GOP donors

19 October 2023

Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona), who has not yet announced if she's running for reelection in 2024, is cleaning up in campaign contributions from well-heeled Republican donors.

The Messenger reported that Sen. Sinema — an independent who caucuses with Democrats — has raised roughly $10.8 million since first being elected to the US Senate in 2018. However, a significant chunk of her fundraising in the third quarter (from July through October) has come increasingly from far-right billionaires known for giving to Republican causes.

According to campaign finance records from the Federal Election Commission database, of the approximately $826,000 raised last quarter, $197,400 came from Republican donors. Some of the more prominent Sinema donors include business magnate Harlan Crow, who gave the Arizona senator the maximum allowable amount of $6,600 for the 2024 election cycle, $1,200 of which came in the third quarter. In addition to making the news for his patronage of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas and his family, Crow is also a top contributor to the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) -- a super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky). The SLF is the GOP's primary vehicle for running attack ads against Senate Democrats, and even spent roughly $17 million attacking Sinema in the 2018 cycle. Crow has so far donated $725,000 to the SLF, and likewise contributed $500,000 to its House counterpart, the Congressional Leadership Fund, in 2018.

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Sinema has also received the maximum $6,600 contribution from TCW Group chairman Marc Stern, who has donated $800,000 to the SLF over the past six years and another $300,000 to the Republican National Committee. Meanwhile, the Sinema Leadership Fund -- another one of the senator's fundraising arms -- received a $3,700 check from Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon. The Goldman boss has so far spent $73,000 bolstering House Republicans, and given the maximum donation to Senator Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) in his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Sacha Haworth, who is a senior advisor to the anti-Sinema group Replace Sinema, said the embattled Arizona senator is relying more on GOP support given her waning support among Democrats.

"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 Leader Schumer,” Haworth told The Messenger.

Sen. Sinema has been a thorn in the side of the Biden administration for several years, helping Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) torpedo Biden's Build Back Better Act in the Senate. Had it passed, the legislation would have greenlit funding for universal pre-K education, a guaranteed four-week paid family medical leave package for all Americans, and guaranteed child care subsidies for parents, among other provisions. While Sinema was initially elected as a Democrat, she has since changed her party affiliation to Independent. Roughly a month later, Congressman Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) announced his campaign against Sinema. Gallego has since outraised Sinema in consecutive quarters.

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