The Resistance Won't Win Back Arizona's Senate Seat
YUMA, Ariz.—Steve Alameda is Kyrsten Sinema’s dream voter. In this military town, roughly 20 miles from the Mexico border, the culture is “hard right” and “stubborn,” according to locals. The economy is heavily agricultural: Growers say they provide 90 percent of the country’s leafy greens during the winter. Alameda is a farmer who heads the local fresh-vegetable association, and he identifies as a Republican. But this year, he’s voting for Sinema for the United States Senate.
“The fact that she’s got where she’s got … that is so big in Arizona, it’s unbelievable,” he told me, after a small health-care event with the candidate. Her opponent—Martha McSally, who stumped with President Donald Trump last week—“is very partisan,” Alameda said. “It’s brutal.”
With two weeks to go until the midterm elections, this is the culmination of Sinema’s grand plan to become Arizona’s first Democratic senator in two decades. The onetime anti-war protester has spent a year carefully cultivating her moderate cred across the state, touting herself as a lawmaker who will work with “literally anyone who is five times in four sentences as she discussed efforts to pass a farm bill in toxic Washington.
