Why did Martha McSally loose?

[lfromnj]

McSally didn't attack Sinema enough on her background, stuff like calling US soldiers terrorists, her liberal views during her tenure in the state house/senate, links to the green party, calling Arizonans crazy, pink tutu, Iraq war,, etc. Instead of doing that McSally sat on her ass and let this fake moderate Sinema smear her troughout the election season.

That is basically the strategy that she used it just didn't work.

Pretty much. The Republicans went all out on demonizing women in the election. Here in TX-07, you couldn't go one television commercial or YouTube video without the same Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) ad with grainy pictures of Nancy Pelosi and Lizzie Fletcher, saying they supported the scary "liberal mob" (basically pictures of some sexual assault survivors protesting Kavanaugh). Sometimes I'd literally see the exact same commercial back-to-back, or 2-3 times in the same commercial break.

Now that, my friends, is pure lunacy

imagine trying to defend Kavanaugh in a Clinton +1 district that just swung 21 points to the left in 2016.

[Frenchrepublican]

I believe the bad climate for republicans is probably the most important factor in her loss. Arizona is clearly no longer a republican state, it has maybe a small republican tilt which is disappearing anyway, so if Democrats win the popular vote nationally by a high single digit margin, AZ will end up voting for the democratic candidate for federal elections unless he/she runs a bad campaign.

[Skye]

This was a strong Dem year and AZ is just not that Republican anymore, friends. Plus, Flake won by 3 when it was a more GOP-leaning state.

[KaiserDave]

McSally didn't attack Sinema enough on her background, stuff like calling US soldiers terrorists, her liberal views during her tenure in the state house/senate, links to the green party, calling Arizonans crazy, pink tutu, Iraq war,, etc. Instead of doing that McSally sat on her ass and let this fake moderate Sinema smear her troughout the election season.

She did this. She still lost.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

She didn't campaign on things people were actually interested in. She needed to weave Sinema's statements into a context that describes the current political situation, not GW Bush's.

Probably the best summary.

McSally was trying to win circa-2004 Arizona.

[Blair]

McSally lost because she tied herself to Trump who is unpopular in Arizona

From the McSally campaign:

“A significant segment of the AZ GOP was hostile to the President,” it says. “In internal polling during the primary, President Trump never broke 80% favorability among Republican voters. A certain segment of AZ Republicans was outright hostile to President Trump, and was against the Kavanaugh appointment. This segment of moderate Republicans, especially woman, proved very difficult to bring home to a Republican candidate that supported President Trump and the confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh.”

Is there a link for this? Would love to read more

[Torie]

Sinema was a far more effective candidate when it came to presentation, and I think decisively won the debates against McSally. Sinema has a lot of talent, and showed it by being so effective in overcoming her "activist" and "extreme hyperbole" past. Anyway, I felt that after watching the debate, that McSally would probably lose. She was the one who came across as the calm and mature adult. McSally came across as more of a superficial attack dog.

[MarkD]

Sinema was a far more effective candidate when it came to presentation, and I think decisively won the debates against McSally. Sinema has a lot of talent, and showed it by being so effective in overcoming her "activist" and "extreme hyperbole" past. Anyway, I felt that after watching the debate, that McSally would probably lose. She was the one who came across as the calm and mature adult. McSally came across as more of a superficial attack dog.

^^^
This, except for the fact that I didn't watch the debate.