Arizona Democrats Prepare to Censure Kyrsten Sinema for Insufficiently Leftist Voting Record
Richard Moorhead
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A group of Arizona Democrats are preparing to censure Senator Kyrsten Sinema for what they believe is a lacking progressive voting record at the state party’s convention this weekend.
The Arizona Democratic Party’s Progressive Caucus has readied a document listing their grievances against the freshman Senator. The progressives accuse Sinema of selling out to Trump and Republicans. They’re especially incensed with her vote to confirm William Barr as Attorney General, in addition to a recent refusal to cosponsor a net neutrality bill.
Sinema usually votes as a traditional progressive Democrat, voting against most of President Trump’s nominees and against legislation favored by the Republican Senate majority. She has cast a few votes deviating from the Democratic Party’s positions- evidently enough to make her a target of progressives in Arizona.
She won a contentious election against now-Senator Martha McSally in 2018(McSally has since been appointed to the Senate seat formerly held by John McCain). Arizona is a nominally red state that is increasingly trending purple due to mass immigration, from outside the country and from within the territorial United States.
A leader of the Arizona Democrats’ Progressive Caucus, Dan O’Neil, explained his support for censuring Sinema.
“The Progressive Caucus is very concerned with Kyrsten Sinema’s voting record. We love her, as we love all Democrats, but we want her to vote like a Democrat rather than supporting Trump half the time.”
A bit of an exaggeration, as Sinema doesn’t vote with Republicans half the time. Her vote to confirm William Barr wasn’t a decisive factor in his confirmation, as the veteran Attorney General was confirmed with a comfortable 54 votes.
Sinema has also voted with Republicans in favor of programs that would actually enact deportation orders for migrants ruled to have invalid asylum claims. The Arizona Progressives do seem more upset about her record with regards to environmental policy, however.
It wouldn’t be the first time a Senator was censured by activists within their own party in the Grand Canyon State. John McCain was censured by Arizona Republicans for his support of amnesty legislation in 2014.
If Democrats are inclined to censure a Senator as nominally moderate as Sinema, there’s no telling as to the insanity they would release should they gain control over the Senate, White House and Supreme Court.
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