Sinema sees approval sink among Democrats, spike among Independents

Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s party switch from Democratic to Independent has hurt her approval rating with the first group and helped it with the second, according to a new Morning Consult survey.

The poll, published on Thursday, found that only 30 percent of registered Democratic Arizona voters approve of the job Sinema is doing as senator, while 59 percent disapprove. Before her party switch last month, 42 percent of Democratic voters approved of the job she was doing.

Meanwhile, 42 percent of registered state voters with no party affiliation approve of the job Sinema is doing as a senator, a 13-point bump. 

Forty-three percent of registered independent Arizona voters disapprove of Sinema’s handling of the position, while 15 percent of those polled are unsure. 

Forty-three percent of registered Arizona Republicans approve of Sinema, a 5-point increase from Morning Consult’s previous polling, while 48 percent disapprove.

Sinema saw a 5-point increase with registered GOP state voters after she switched her party affiliation, as only 38 percent of those respondents approved of the job she was doing in Congress before she switched parties. 

“I’ve never fit neatly into any party box. I’ve never really tried. I don’t want to,” Sinema told CNN’s Jake Tapper in December, when she announced she was registering as an Independent. “Removing myself from the partisan structure — not only is it true to who I am and how I operate, I also think it’ll provide a place of belonging for many folks across the state and the country who also are tired of the partisanship.”

The latest Morning Consult survey was conducted from Dec. 9-31 among a total of 6,455 state respondents; its margin of error was plus or minus 1-5 percentage points.