AOC wants a Democrat to challenge Kyrsten Sinema for Senate seat. Others in the party aren’t so sure

Democrats are largely ambivalent about whether to support a Democratic challenger to Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona in 2024, after she announced she would leave one of the two major parties to become an independent.

The contrarian Arizona senator announced her decision to become an independent but has yet to announce whether she will run for re-election.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, a democratic socialist who has frequently criticised more conservative members of her party, told The Independent she’d be open to supporting a challenger.

“I would support a Democrat in that seat, yes,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez said.

But Representative Ilhan Omar did not say whether she would support one when asked.

“That is up to the people of Arizona, not me, sir,” she told The Independent.

On the Senate side, Democrats are more hesitant. Ms Sinema announced her decision after Senator Raphael Warnock won a runoff election in Georgia, meaning Democrats held every Senate seat up for re-election in the 2022 midterms. In addition, John Fetterman flipped an open seat in Pennsylvania.

Ms Sinema will still caucus with Democrats, similar to Independent Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine, and will keep her committee spots. But despite Mr Sanders’ criticisms of Ms Sinema, he deferred when asked about supporting a 2024 challenger, saying it was a “long time” from now.

The Arizona senior senator became the first Democratic elected from Arizona since 1988 when she won her race in 2018. But since then, the state has voted for more Democrats. President Joe Biden won the state in 2020 and Senator Mark Kelly won a special election to finish the term of the late Senator John McCain that same year.

Last month, Katie Hobbs, who was elected secretary of state the same year she won her Senate seat, won the governorship last month while Mr Kelly won a full six-year term in the Senate when he beat Blake Masters. But Mr Kelly did not tell reporters whether he would support a Democrat, saying he doesn’t get into hypotheticals.

“I've worked very closely with her for a long period of time,” he said. He also did not say whether she informed him of her decision to switch parties. “I talked to her very regularly, all the time. I don’t go into the details of our conversation.”

Democratic Senator Jon Tester of Montana, who is weighing whether to seek a fourth term in 2024 in a tough state for Democrats, drew a parallel with Mr King of Maine, when asked about whether Democrats should support a challenger.

“We've never had a Democrat run against them,” he said. Mr Tester is one of three senators who hail from states Donald Trump won twice, alongside Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sherrod Brown of Ohio.

“I mean, at this point in time, where I'm up potentially for election if I choose to run, I’m not going to be worried about Kyrsten Sinema, I’m not going to be worried about Sherrod Brown. I ain’t going to be worried about Joe Manchin. I'll be worried about Jon Tester,” the Montana lawmaker said.

He added that he imagined that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee would work to re-elect her just in the same way it works to re-elect members who caucus with Democrats regardless of party affiliation.