By Molly Milligan, Hamza Hasheem, Jordan Antebi, and Natalie Nagorski
In Arizona, the gloves are off, as Representatives Martha McSally and Kyrsten Sinema vie for an open Senate seat that could determine control of Congress. Since early 2018, Republican McSally and Democrat Sinema have spent a combined $30 million on television and print ads — many of them negative attacks — in a strategy that has prompted mixed responses from voters.
At the State Fair in Phoenix, Chase Gibbons, a McSally supporter, said he was receptive to aggressive, partisan advertising. For him, the ads provided essential information on the candidates’ records, and helped convince him to vote against Sinema. “There’s plenty of stuff to dig up on her,” he said, referring to an old image of the Democrat in a pink tutu protesting the Iraq war. The McSally campaign has paired the photo with a picture of their candidate, a former Army combat pilot, in her flight jacket.
But independent voter Donna Moore was turned off by the tactic, calling it “very disappointing.” Moore cited the fact “that the Republican candidate for senator started with the nastiness even before the primary” as one reason why she chose to vote for Sinema. McSally’s advertising strategy, Moore believed, deterred many Arizona independents.
Negative ads like this one from Sinema have even dissuaded some from voting this cycle. Robert Oman, who did not disclose his party affiliation, said he felt cynical about the smear tactics of the senate campaigns, and would not cast a ballot. “I think it’s all ridiculous. It’s all bashing,” he said.
Unlike Moore, who faulted the GOP, Oman criticized both parties and their messages. Going negative, Oman believed, only blurred the candidates’ true personalities, and made it difficult to evaluate their positions on the issues. “You can’t go both ways, you can’t beat up on somebody while also getting the message across,” Oman said. “A lot of it is probably true, but it don’t matter, they’re not stating the facts.”
