OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Thinking for yourself is apparently a punishable crime in the Democrat Party as Democrat Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has discovered.
The Arizona Democrat Party has voted to unanimously censure the 45-year-old senator after she voted to not end the filibuster to pass President Joe Biden’s voting legislation, Fox 10 Phoenix reported.
“While we take no pleasure in this announcement, the ADP Executive Board has decided to formally censure Senator Sinema as a result of her failure to do whatever it takes to ensure the health of our democracy,” Raquel Teran, the chair of the Arizona Democratic Party said.
She said that “the Arizona Democratic Party is a diverse coalition with plenty of room for policy disagreements, however on the matter of the filibuster and the urgency to protect voting rights, we have been crystal clear. In the choice between an archaic legislative norm and protecting Arizonans’ right to vote, we choose the latter, and we always will”.
She argued that Arizona Republicans are creating “restrictive legislation to eliminate our popular and long-standing vote-by-mail system” and to “jail election workers”.
“As a party, our job is to support our Democratic candidates, and we appreciate Senator Sinema’s leadership in passing the American Rescue Plan and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. However, we are also here to advocate for our constituents and the ramifications of failing to pass federal legislation that protects their right to vote are too large and far-reaching,” she said.
But Sinema’s team is fighting back, arguing that her positions have not changed.
“During three terms in the U.S. House, and now in the Senate, Kyrsten has always promised Arizonans she would be an independent voice for the state — not for either political party,” her spokeswoman Hannah Hurley said before the censure vote. “She’s delivered for Arizonans and has always been honest about where she stands.”
Sinema’s influence is driven by the Senate’s 50-50 split, which essentially gives any senator the ability to kill legislation, an option Sinema has repeatedly exercised.
But she faces political dynamics unlike the other Senate moderate thwarting Democratic ambitions, Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Representing a state that former President Donald Trump carried by nearly 39 percentage points in 2020, Manchin is unlikely to face a progressive challenger who would gain traction.
In Arizona, however, Democrats are ascendant. Joe Biden was the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since 1996, and the party is eager to build on that success. That makes it harder for a Democrat to simply ignore the left here, particularly in a primary election.
Sinema supports the Democrats’ voting rights legislation but steadfastly opposes passing it by changing or eliminating the Senate’s filibuster rule, which effectively requires 60 of 100 votes to pass most legislation. On Wednesday night, she joined Manchin and all Republicans to oppose a one-time rule change so the bill could pass with a simple majority.
But Democrats are abandoning her and threatening to leave her on her own in the next election for Senate in Arizona.
“Any reservoir of goodwill that she had is gone,” State Rep. Ruben Gallego, who may challenge Sinema in a primary, said.
Arizona Democrats’ Michael Slugocki vice chair said he has never seen anything like this.
“I’ve never, ever in my time organizing in the Arizona Democratic Party seen such a large amount of Democrats upset,” he said. “It’s never been at these levels, ever.”
And the Primary Sinema Project said it has raised more than $300,000 from nearly 12,000 donors.
“We are quite literally doing everything we physically, possibly can in terms of putting our bodies on the line and trying to plead for this action because the consequences (of inaction) are far worse than starving or going to jail or both,” Shana Gallagher, one of the dozens of young people holding a hunger strike in protest of Sen. Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin, said.
