WATCH: Schumer Declines to Say If He Would Endorse Kyrsten Sinema for Re-Election
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) declined to say on Wednesday if he would endorse Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s (D-AZ) re-election, given the praise she received from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
Sinema has yet to say whether she’ll run when she’s up in 2024.
“Leader McConnell said at the start of the week that Kyrsten Sinema is the most effective first-term senator he’s seen in his career. She’s bucked, the Democratic leadership, at times,” said a reporter during a press conference on Capitol Hill. “Would you endorse her in her primary should she run in 2024?”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) declines to say if he would endorse Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) in a primary. pic.twitter.com/sSVExAwjam
— The Recount (@therecount) September 28, 2022
Schumer sidestepped the question.
“Look, the bottom line is that Senator McConnell said I was very effective when I was there as well,” he said. “Senator Sinema has done a good job on a whole lot of different issues.”
During a Monday event at the University of Louisville’s McConnell Center, McConnell praised Sinema, calling her the “most effective first-term senator” he’s witnessed.
“She is, today, what we have too few of in the Democratic Party: a genuine moderate and a dealmaker,” he said.
Sinema reciprocated.
“Despite our apparent differences, Sen. McConnell and I have forged a friendship, one that is rooted in our commonalities, including our pragmatic approach to legislating, our respect for the Senate as an institution,” she said.
Sinema, were she to run in 2024, faces a possible primary against progressive Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), who blasted Sinema for predicting during the McConnell Center event that the Democrats would lose both the House and the Senate.
Watch above via The Recount.
