Bernie Sanders will make what amounts to his last stand in Arizona on Sunday.

Pity there won't be an audience there to see it. If there was, I'd expect to see Arizona Sen. Martha McSally front and center, rooting for the self-described "democratic socialist."

Sanders’ dismal showing in yet another round of primaries on Tuesday is leaving Arizona’s unelected senator holding an empty lasso – one she was hoping to use to lash Mark Kelly to Sanders, a self-described “democratic socialist.”

McSally’s first campaign ad, released last month, wasn’t even about McSally. It was about: “Kelly and Sanders, too liberal for Arizona.”

“Mark Kelly will be Sanders’ 51st vote in the Senate,” McSally campaign manager Dylan Lefler said in a statement announcing the ad.

McSally is flying ... totally underwater

Meanwhile, McSally has been busy using a second rope to tie herself to President Donald Trump.

“Mark Kelly is flying on Bernie Sanders' wing, and I am flying on your wing, President Trump,” McSally said, during Trump’s Arizona campaign rally.

Since then, Kelly has endorsed Joe Biden and Biden has gone on to roll over the Democratic field, leaving Sanders to wonder whatever happened to his army and McSally … with a president whose approval rating in Arizona is stuck at 47%.

A president whose handling of the coronavirus is panned by 54% of the state’s likely voters, according to a new poll by OH Predictive Insights.

The poll shows just 46% of likely Arizona voters approve of Trump’s handling of the pandemic. Independents disapproved, 65% to 35%.

That same poll – conducted just a day after Kelly endorsed Biden – showed Kelly now with 49% of the vote in Arizona compared with 42% for McSally.

Three months ago, it was Kelly 47% to McSally’s 44%.

Her attempt to define Kelly is done

The March 3-4 poll of 600 likely voters has a margin of error of 4% and more bad news for McSally whose favorability number is now underwater. The poll reported just 43% of likely voters have a favorable view of McSally, while 47% don't like her.

Over the last 13 months, her favorability numbers have slipped from plus-10% to minus-4%. It seems flying on Trump's wing is pushing her ever closer to becoming the first Arizona Republican to lose not one but two Senate seats.

There is a glimmer of hope for McSally – the fact that a sizable amount of voters don’t yet know who Kelly is.

“While there are few undecided voters in the Senate race, a quarter of likely voters do not have an opinion of Mark Kelly – giving Team McSally an opening to define the first-time candidate,” pollster Mike Noble said.

Unfortunately for McSally, her definition of Kelly has all but exited the race and polls show Kelly’s pick, Biden, could well win Arizona. The race for the center is on – a race McSally lost two years ago.

And McSally's lasso? If this keeps up, it’s going to start feeling more and more like a noose.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com.