[Photo Credit: By Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America - Mark Kelly, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=114155139]

Democrat Senator Mark Kelly Refuses to Back Kyrsten Sinema’s Reelection Bid

When challenged about Kyrsten Sinema’s decision to leave the Democratic Party before the end of last year, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona reportedly declined to support Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona over the weekend.

During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper that took place on Sunday, Kelly was questioned about Sinema.

Tapper highlighted how Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) suggested that he believed Sinema ought to be supported because of her “independent spirit.”

Manchin’s comments were discussed in the context of Tapper’s discussion about Sinema.

“Do you agree with him? Or do you anticipate supporting whoever the Democratic nominee for that Senate seat would be?” Tapper asked Kelly

“Well, I’m not going to get ahead of Senator Sinema. She hasn’t made an announcement. What she has said is, she doesn’t want to be focused on politics right now. I have worked with her very closely over the last two years, I mean, really in a very positive way. She’s very effective in the United States Senate. We have got a lot done. And I look forward to doing that over the next months and the rest of this year.” Kelly said in response.

Since leaving the Democratic party to become an independent, Sinema’s political future has been called into question by many political observers.

Polls have repeatedly shown that Sinema stands little chance of winning re-election having seemingly alienated much of her Democratic base and also being unable to appeal to a sufficient number of Republicans to remain competitive in any potential Arizona Senate race.

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