'A great pick': Dem senator gushes about Ruben Gallego as he mounts challenge to Sinema

WASHINGTON — Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) got a challenger in her race for the Arizona Senate over the weekend when Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego (AZ) announced his intentions to run for the seat.

The announcement comes after Sinema revealed that she would be leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent.

Current polling shows that Gallego is winning the race both against Sinema in a three-way race and a two-way race. A poll from early January looked at whether Kari Lake could beat Sinema. Newsweek reported that the numbers had Lake at 36 percent and Gallego at 32 percent with Sinema at just 14 percent. The 2022 polls showed that voters in both parties didn't like Sinema.

Last week, Sinema was seen at the posh billionaire conference Davos with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), where the two high-fived over their ability to block changes to the filibuster to pass the new version of the Voting Rights Act.

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Speaking to Raw Story, Sen. Tina Murphy (D-MN) said that she was excited about Gallego.

"I think he's a great pick," she said. "I think he's been called the 'chief implementer' which I think is a great thing to have in that role, to implement the huge pieces of legislation that we've passed over the last two years. And I'm excited to work with him."

When asked whether the Democratic Party should back the Democratic nominee or Sen. Sinema, Smith laughed saying she isn't certain about what Sinema plans to do going forward.

"She's my colleague," Smith said walking away.

Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) all refused to answer where they stood on whether the Democratic party should support Sinema despite not being a Democrat.

Democratic firms have already ditched Sinema as a client. Many partisan consulting firms have rules about not working against their clients.