Powerful Democratic consultants have dropped Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) since she disaffiliated from the Democratic Party to register as an Independent. Their departure will make it more difficult for her to win re-election in her home state if she runs again in 2024.

“NGP VAN, which manages Democratic voter data, is set to cut off Sinema’s access at the end of January, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation,” The Huffington Post reported. “The ad makers who worked with her in 2018, Dixon/Davis Media Group, have split with her campaign. Two other Democratic sources said polling firm Impact Research made the same decision.”

The departures are notable because they’ll limit Sinema’s ability to tout her political accomplishments in advertising and to reach voters who supported her in past elections. Current polling also suggests that she’d face an uphill climb in a future election.

Although Sinema hasn’t yet announced a re-election bid, Arizona Democratic Reps. Ruben Gallego and Greg Stanton, are both expected to run for the state’s U.S. Senate seat. If she runs, she’ll likely face a three-way contest against a Democrat and a Republican in the general election.

A recent poll from PPP showed Sinema getting only 13 percent of support from state voters in a three-way race against Gallego (who got 40 percent) and gubernatorial-election-loser Republican Kari Lake (who got 41 percent). While it’s unclear whether Lake would even run for Senate following her narrow 2022 election loss, Sinema’s Independent bid could act as a spoiler for either candidate.

Sinema crafted bipartisan deals on same-sex marriage, gun control, and infrastructure funding, The Huffington Post notes. But she also has a reputation for opposing other social reforms that Democratic voters support, like minimum wage hikes and filibuster reform. She also gained additional favor with Republicans by blocking President Joe Biden’s (D) proposed tax hikes on the wealthy and corporations.

The real challenge for Democrats, if Sinema runs, will be to distance her from their party in a way that will cause her to split the Republican vote rather than the Democratic one.

In a recent interview with Neil Cavuto on Fox Business, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr, pictured above, said it would be “valuable” for Senate Republicans to block President-elect Joe Biden from appointing a new FCC chairperson. That way, the GOP can “forestall” Biden’s agenda in the agency, including restoring net neutrality so that corporations can’t charge companies for an equal presence on the internet.

In short, if Republicans win Georgia’s runoff elections on January 5, they could stall a vote for Biden’s new pick for the FCC head. If this happens, Biden won’t be able to seat someone to help implement his agenda.

“But I think it would be very valuable to … help forestall what really would be billions of dollars worth of economic damage that I think a Democrat FCC would look to jam through from day one in January or February,” Carr said.

While a majority of Republican congressional leaders have refused to publicly acknowledge that President-elect Joe Biden won the 2020 election, they’re nevertheless pledging to block Biden’s cabinet appointees.

MSNBC News contributor Hugh Hewitt quoted Republican Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, who said, “It is hard for me to imagine they would nominate Susan Rice [for Secretary of State].”

Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton also told Hewitt, “I cannot imagine a Republican Senate confirming Susan Rice to any position.”

Rice served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 2009 to 2013 and U.S. National Security Advisor from 2013 to 2017.

Rice recently said that the Trump Administration’s refusal to acknowledge Biden’s presidential victory has posed national security risks. “They are proceeding in a fashion that is reckless, dangerous, and irresponsible,” she said, calling the president’s actions”[The] most irresponsible leadership during a transition I think any of us have seen in our lifetimes if not in the history of the republic.”

It’s widely expected that Senate Republicans and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will try to block Biden’s cabinet nominees as “radicals” and “extreme lefitsts”, although Biden could bypass their GOP obstructionism by using the Vacancies Act and the recess appointment clause of the U.S. Constitution to seat his cabinet anyway.

While most congressional Republicans have been silent about acknowledging Biden’s presidential victory, at least three Republicans have publicly voiced doubt that Biden actually won including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Republican Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri and Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.

Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah; former Republican President George W. Bush; his brother, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush; Republican Governor of Maryland Larry Hogan and 13 other Republican Congress members have all acknowledged that Biden won.