Fox News anchor John Roberts spoke to GOP strategist Steven Law and pollster Mark Penn on Tuesday about the impact of Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) announcing she won’t seek reelection.
Sinema “would have been running as an independent against the Republican and the Democrat. How do you think that helps either Kari Lake or Ruben Gallego?” Roberts asked.
“I think it definitely helps Kari Lake. Kyrsten Sinema does appeal to that middle wedge of the electorate that sometimes voted for John McCain voted for Mark Kelly, voted for Kyrsten Sinema. The thing that is helpful here is that, Ruben Gallego is nothing like Kelly or Sinema,” Law replied.
“He’s a hard-left Democrat. And this gives, Lake the opportunity to unite the Republican Party, I think. Okay, go. Can’t can’t teach that middle wedge that people like cinema. Got it. I think that makes it a more competitive race,” concluded Law.
“All right, so, Mark, break it down for us again. Republicans are feeling pretty good about their chances of retaking the Senate, but they were feeling pretty good in 2022 about extending their majority in the House and retaking the Senate. And we all know how that turned out,” Roberts asked.
“I think the general sentiment is, is that Democrats have a very good chance of retaking the House, and Republicans maybe will retake the Senate,” Penn replied, adding:
But the map doesn’t look all that great.
I don’t think this development is particularly good for them. I think a lot of Democrats were worried that Sinema would split the Democratic vote.And I suspect probably Arizona is going to be a pretty close microcosm for the rest of the nation with if it’s a Lake, you’re one candidate on the Democrat side a little bit to the left, one a little bit to the right, the country not losing out on the centrist choice and it being 0.3% for Biden last time.So this is going to be, I suspect, the toss-up of toss-up states, with a really interesting vote. But, you know, these races are still taking shape. You know, I saw a lot of blue on that map. I’m not sure the Republicans, have a lot of guaranteed gains at this point except West Virginia.
“Yeah, that idea that, that Kyrsten Sinema was diluting the Democratic vote. I talked about that with Steven, but he seemed to think that it wouldn’t have been that much. And that Lake would actually, probably benefit,” Roberts replied, noting that each side seemed to think Sinema would have split votes on their side.
“I want to ask you this question Steven, what kind of coattails do you think President Trump has this year? In 2022, he went 199 and 34 in the overall races, in competitive races he went 46 and 33. So not quite
“Well, I think you know so much of what defines the outcome of the Senate and really races across the country is the political terrain. And our top three races, West Virginia, Ohio and Montana will all be won by President Trump at the top of the ticket, in fact, by significantly large enough margins that our candidates will do very well in those three states,” Law replied, adding:
If we win those three, we win the Senate. And I think if you look down at that next tier, you could see Trump picking up a seat. A state like Wisconsin, maybe Pennsylvania, maybe Michigan, or close enough, at least where we’ve got good candidates, people like Dave McCormick and, Eric Hovde and, and, potentially Mike Rogers, obviously in a primary at this point that we can be competitive in those states, even if it’s just close. But in the top three seats, those are states that Trump is going to win by large margins, which will help our candidates in those races.
Lake, who very narrowly lost her bid for governor in 2022, issued a statement soon after Sinema’s announcement on Tuesday and clearly made a play for her supporters. “As a Journalist, I covered Kyrsten Sinema for many years. We may not agree on everything, but I know she shares my love for Arizona,” Lake said, adding:
Senator Sinema had the courage to stand tall against the Far-Left in defense of the filibuster—despite the overwhelming pressure from the radicals in her party like Ruben Gallego who called on her to burn it all down.
Watch the clip above via Fox News.