Sen. Kyrsten Sinema — infamous for voting down a federal $15 minimum wage, high-fiving Sen. Joe Manchin to kill filibuster reform, and overall kowtowing to corporate interests while hiding behind euphemistic claims of “moderation” — announced Tuesday she will not run for reelection this year, news welcomed by progressives both in her home state of Arizona and beyond. Sinema’s departure from the…
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New polling out of Arizona shows that Rep. Ruben Gallego (D) is ahead of both Republican Kari Lake and incumbent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I) in a three-way contest for the state’s U.S. Senate seat in next year’s elections. Gallego receives a plurality of support from voters, though not a majority, according to the statewide Noble Predictive Insights poll that was conducted from October 25-31.
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After preserving a tax benefit for investment managers last year, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) continues to rely on investment industry donors as she faces a Democratic challenger in a possible 2024 re-election campaign. In the second quarter this year, private equity, hedge fund, and venture capital executives streamed dozens of four-figure donations to Sinema’s campaign…
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Democratic Arizona Congressman Ruben Gallego on Tuesday accused Sen. Kyrsten Sinema—who he hopes to oust from the U.S. Senate next year—of playing a major role in the Silicon Valley Bank collapse by taking campaign contributions from lobbyists that represented the bank and then voting to deregulate it.
Politico reports that Sinema (I-Ariz.) was one of numerous members of Congress to take campaign donations from Franklin Square Group, which once counted Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) among its clients. In 2018, Sinema—then a Democrat serving in the U.S. House of Representatives—received more than $8,000 from the lobbyists before she voted for Sen. Mike Crapo’s (R-Idaho) Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act.
“Before voting to loosen bank safeguards, Sinema received over $100,000 from big banks. And among those who bought Sinema’s vote were three Silicon Valley Bank lobbyists that maxed out,” Ruben said in a campaign email. “Simply put, she voted to give the banks free rein. And I did not.”
“The SVB collapse is a direct result of Kyrsten Sinema’s choice to side with big banks over everyday Arizonans.”
Dubbed the Bank Lobbyist Act by critics, the law rolled back the Dodd-Frank Act—which was passed in the wake of the 2007-08 global financial meltdown—and exempted banks with between $50 billion and $250 billion in assets from rigorous stress-testing and capital requirements. Both SVB and Signature Bank, which are both now under federal government control, qualified for the “medium-sized bank” exemption.
Sinema argued at the time that “these important reforms will help protect the financial security of Arizonans young and old as they plan for homeownership, a college education, or a stable retirement.”
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Gallego asked Monday: “What’s the difference between Sen. Sinema and me? When bank lobbyists asked me to weaken bank regulations, I said no. When they asked Sen. Sinema, she asked how much—and voted yes. Now we are all going to pay for her mistake.”
On Twitter Tuesday, Gallego wrote that “the SVB collapse is a direct result of Kyrsten Sinema’s choice to side with big banks over everyday Arizonans.”
“FEC records and public lobbying reports show that three SVB lobbyists maxed out donations to Sinema ahead of 2018 Dodd-Frank rollback which led to the collapse,” Gallego continued, referring to the Federal Election Commission. “Sinema is in the pocket of Wall Street and her vote put hardworking Arizonans, their families, and their small business, at risk of another 2008-like meltdown.”
“Arizonans deserve a leader in the Senate who will fight for them, not Wall Street,” he added. “Sinema is not that person and Arizonans know it.”
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Sinema was far from alone in taking campaign cash from SVB’s lobbyists and political action committee.
As Politico‘s Hailey Fuchs, Jessica Piper, and Holly Otterbein noted:
Between 2017 and 2022, Silicon Valley Bank’s PAC gave more than $50,000 to the campaigns of nearly two dozen senators and representatives, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. The donations largely went to members—Republicans and Democrats—who served on relevant committees including the House Financial Services Committee or Senate Finance Committee. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) received the most from the PAC, each bringing in $7,500 over the six-year period.
SVB CEO Greg Becker “also made maximum individual donations to the campaigns of Warner and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) during the 2022 cycle,” the reporters added, citing FEC records.
Sinema—who has been accused of “cartoonish-level corruption” for coziness with corporations and lobbyists—was excoriated in a Tuesday Daily Beast article by Michael Daly, who called the senator “a wolf for Wall Street.”
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Daly took aim at Sinema’s Sunday statement asserting that “the federal government must now ensure those responsible [for the SVB collapse] are held accountable, while maintaining stability for all Americans who rely on our banking system.”
“Sinema need only step in front of a mirror to find a prime suspect,” wrote Daly. “Whether she’s calling herself a Democrat or an independent, her voting record is the same. And it marks her a shill for the banking industry.”
This article was produced by Sludge, an independent, ad-free investigative news site covering money in politics. Click here to support Sludge. Arizona Democrat Ruben Gallego announced on Monday that he is running for Senate in 2024, possibly against centrist Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. In an announcement video posted to Twitter, Gallego speaks about growing up poor and being raised by a…
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The campaign by Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) to unseat Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is touting its over $1 million fundraising haul, achieved in just the 24 hours after Gallego announced his campaign on Monday, perhaps portending an uphill battle for Sinema to keep her seat after provoking the ire of progressives and Democrats over the past years. In a press release, the Gallego campaign announced that…
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Republican leadership in the Senate is openly courting Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema — a former Democrat who changed her party affiliation to independent in December — to caucus with Republicans or become an official member of the GOP. Sinema, who obstructed a number of items on the Democratic agenda as a member of that party, currently caucuses with Democrats, as do two other independents in the…
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Just over 24 hours after announcing his 2024 U.S. Senate candidacy for Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s seat in Arizona, Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego set multiple fundraising records and made clear the vast difference between his approach to public service and that of his opponent.
Gallego announced he has already raised more than $1 million, bringing in more than 27,000 donations since launching his campaign Monday morning.
The congressman broke Sen. Mark Kelly’s (D-Ariz.) previous 24-hour fundraising record in the state—doing so in just eight hours—and distinguished his relationship with small donors from Sinema’s (I-Ariz.) reliance on Wall Street and corporate PACs for contributions.
The individual donations Gallego has already received in just one day surpass the amount that “Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has received in the last three years,” said his campaign.
The early fundraising haul “speaks to the excitement and grassroots support for his candidacy and the momentum behind the campaign to return Sen. Sinema’s seat back to the hands of everyday Arizonans,” the campaign added.
“I am extremely grateful for the support our campaign has received since entering this race,” said Gallego. “We’re running a grassroots campaign to take back this seat for hardworking Arizonans, and this fundraising record proves that. While Sen. Sinema collects huge checks from powerful special interests, this campaign is going to be funded by the people, and that’s the way it should be.”
As the donations poured in, Gallego appeared on MSNBC‘s “The Last Word” to say he supports reforming the legislative filibuster, which he called a “tool of obstruction” that Sinema supports and has called an “important guardrail for the institution.”
He also announced a number of in-person events he plans to hold in the coming weeks across the state, noting that Sinema has been criticized for not holding public town halls with her constituents and instead attending high-dollar fundraisers.
“Arizona: You’ve been neglected by Washington for far too long,” said Gallego, announcing events in Tucson, Navajo Nation, Phoenix, and other cities. “I’m sorry that your senator, Kyrsten Sinema, has let you down. But I’m going to change that.”
\u201cTUCSON!! This Saturday at 10am, come out and join us at the Plaza at Hotel Congress for our Tucson launch event! When I say EVERY Arizonan, I mean EVERY Arizonan \u2013 I want to hear from YOU! https://t.co/B2yXW6ainK\u201d— Ruben Gallego (@Ruben Gallego) 1674587592
Last October, the progressive think tank Data for Progress released polling that showed in a hypothetical matchup, Gallego had the support of 62% of Arizona voters, compared to 23% who said they would back Sinema over him.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams.
United States Rep. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat from Arizona, announced on Monday morning that he will be running for U.S. Senator in hopes of ousting incumbent independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema in the 2024 general election. Sinema, who was formerly a Democrat but changed her party affiliation in December, has not yet announced whether she will be seeking reelection. In his campaign video announcement…
Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego on Monday formally launched his 2024 campaign for the seat held by right-wing Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who officially registered as an Independent in December after months of derailing the Biden administration’s policy agenda and preserving tax loopholes for her corporate allies.
“The problem isn’t that Senator Sinema abandoned the Democratic Party—it’s that she’s abandoned Arizona,” said Gallego, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus who represents Arizona’s 3rd District. “She’s repeatedly broken her promises, and fought for the interests of Big Pharma and Wall Street at our expense.”
“I’m running for the U.S. Senate because the rich and the powerful don’t need any more advocates in Washington—but families who can’t afford groceries do,” Gallego added.
\u201cGrowing up poor, all I had was the American dream. It kept me going: as a kid sleeping on the floor, a student scrubbing toilets, a Marine losing brothers in Iraq.\n\nToday, too many Arizonans see their dream slipping away. I\u2019m running for the U.S. Senate to win it back for you!\u201d— Ruben Gallego (@Ruben Gallego)
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Sinema has not yet publicly said whether she plans to run for reelection in 2024.
If she does, as The Washington Post noted Monday, “Gallego’s bid sets up a dilemma for national Democrats, who must choose whether to pour their considerable resources into backing a Democratic nominee for the seat or to support an independent incumbent.”
Several Republicans—including failed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and failed U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters—are also weighing 2024 runs for the seat.
A recent memo by the Democratic Party-aligned firm Public Policy Polling found that Gallego is “considerably more popular” in Arizona than Sinema and “would be a top-tier Senate candidate regardless of what she decides to do in 2024.”
Other polling, including a January 2022 survey by Data for Progress, has suggested that Sinema would lose in a landslide if she runs for a second term.
Sacha Haworth, a spokeswoman for the Replace Sinema campaign at the Change for Arizona 2024 PAC, said in a statement that
“we are thrilled that there’s now a Democratic candidate in this race ready to take on Kyrsten Sinema and win.”
“Ruben Gallego has never backed down from fighting for Arizona, and he has what it takes to win,” said Haworth. “As she jet sets with the international elite and does favors for her Wall Street donors at the expense of working Arizona taxpayers, Kyrsten Sinema shows us daily that she is only out for herself, and it’s time for new leadership. We will continue to make the case as to why Arizona deserves better than Kyrsten Sinema, and do everything in our power to help Democrats win this seat.”
This story has been updated to include a statement from the Replace Sinema campaign.
A new poll – one of the first conducted after Sen. Kyrsten Sinema announced earlier this month that she would be switching her affiliation from Democratic to independent – shows that the embattled conservative would get blown out in a hypothetical race for her seat in Arizona in 2024, but would still sap enough votes from the leading Democratic candidate to hand a Republican the race.
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On Wednesday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) said that backing a progressive primary challenger to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona) would be the “easiest decision” she would ever have to make.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan, Ocasio-Cortez said that four years into her six-year term, the conservative Democrat hasn’t “given a compelling case as to why she should be renominated as the Democratic nominee” in Arizona.
“She has proven herself an obstacle to the right to vote in the United States, she is not an ally on civil rights,” Ocasio-Cortez said, adding that Sinema has become a “threat” to securing a stable democracy in the U.S. “She is not standing up to corporate interests – in fact, she is a profound ally to them … she is not doing what voters in Arizona sent her to do.”
The New York progressive said that she would gladly support a progressive challenger to Sinema should one arise when the senator is up for reelection in 2024.
“If it came down to someone like Ruben Gallego and Kyrsten Sinema, I think that would be the easiest decision I would ever have to make,” she said. “There is no comparison…. We need someone that has more allegiance to the actual people of this country than special interests.”
Representative Gallego, a Democratic Congress member from Phoenix, is an early progressive favorite to challenge Sinema. He recently said that he has been encouraged by political figures of all stripes – lawmakers, unions, Democratic advocacy groups and donors – to run against Sinema in two years.
A recent poll by Data for Progress found that Sinema would lose against Gallego if the primary were held now. Among likely Arizona Democratic primary voters, a whopping 74 percent of respondents said that they would vote for Gallego, while only 16 percent said they would vote for Sinema. Against a less well-known potential candidate, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, Sinema would still lose by a large margin, securing only 17 percent of the vote, the poll found.
If the polling data is reflective of the state’s Democratic populace, it means that Sinema has only gotten less popular since last October, when a similar poll conducted by Data for Progress found that Gallego would win 62 to 23 percent among Democratic primary voters. Against other hypothetical challengers, including Romero, Sinema received no more than 26 percent support, the poll found.
Meanwhile, support for Sinema among Democrats has dropped drastically over the past year. The poll from last October found that Sinema’s job approval is dismal, with only 25 percent approval and 70 percent disapproval. Earlier this month, she lost the support of major Democratic organizations like Emily’s List, a prominent abortion rights PAC that helps to elect female Democratic candidates to office.
Last week, Sinema even lost the support of her party in her home state, as the Arizona Democratic Party voted to censure the lawmaker on Friday. While they have had frustrations with Sinema over her opposition to filibuster abolition or reform, the party said, Sinema’s obstruction of voting rights legislation last week was a step too far.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) praised the party’s decision earlier this week, calling the move “exactly right.” Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-West Virginia) vote against changing filibuster rules to pass voting rights legislation was “a terrible, terrible vote” and “pathetic,” Sanders said. Last week, the progressive lawmaker also indicated that he was open to supporting primary challengers to Sinema and Manchin.
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Five military veterans who served on an advisory panel for Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona) abruptly resigned on Thursday, writing in a letter addressed to the senator that she was “hanging [her] constituents out to dry” by refusing to support the progressive ideals she espoused as a candidate for office.
In the letter sent to Sinema, which was obtained by The New York Times and featured in an advertisement by a progressive veterans group called Common Defense, the vets said they were disappointed by Sinema’s refusal to support reforming or abolishing the filibuster rules in order to pass President Joe Biden’s agenda. They cited Sinema’s opposition to Biden’s $3.5 trillion social safety net, climate and tax plan as a reason for their decision, condemning the senator’s willingness to accept big-money donations from lobbyists.
“You have become one of the principal obstacles to progress, answering to big donors rather than your own people,” the veterans wrote. “We shouldn’t have to buy representation from you, and your failure to stand by your people and see their urgent needs is alarming.”
The five veterans who wrote to Sinema said she was using them as “window dressing” to appeal to voters in a state where more than 6 percent of residents have served in the armed forces.
“Are you choosing to answer to big donors rather than Arizonans? These are not the actions of a maverick,” the veterans wrote.
In a separate statement, Sylvia González Andersh, one of the veterans who signed the letter, said that Sinema’s frequent intraparty clashes with other Democrats have demoralized constituents who fought to win her seat.
“Democrats were out desperately trying to help her win the seat, and now we feel like, what was it for?” Andersh said. “Nobody knows what she is thinking because she doesn’t tell anybody anything. It’s very sad to think that someone who you worked for that hard to get elected is not even willing to listen.”
Sinema responded to the resignation of the five veterans from the advisory panel in a statement released by her office, saying:
While it is unfortunate that apparent disagreement on separate policy issues has led to this decision, I thank them for their service and will continue working every day to deliver for Arizona’s veterans who have sacrificed so much to keep us safe and secure.
The letter’s signatories aren’t the only ones who are frustrated with Sinema’s actions since taking office. In fact, in a hypothetical primary race against the senator, most Democrats in Arizona would likely support a more progressive candidate.
A Data for Progress poll published earlier this month found that, even in a crowded primary, Sinema would likely lose to another Democrat running to unseat her. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) — one name that has been suggested as a possible replacement for Sinema — would win a five-person primary race with 23 percent of the vote, the poll found. Meanwhile, Sinema would win just 19 percent of the vote if the election happened today.
In a head-to-head matchup between just Sinema and Gallego, the latter would win by nearly 40 points, Data for Progress found. However, Sinema is not up for re-election until 2024.
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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) made some bold assertions while visiting the U.S.-Mexico border on Monday that Democratic lawmakers say is likely a lie. McCarthy claimed that border agents had told him that terrorists had entered the country due to a relaxation of immigration rules by the Biden administration.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, McCarthy said that he was told directly by agents that terrorists had entered the U.S. “You saw it in their eyes. They talked about, ‘They’re on the list.’ … The terrorist watch list,” McCarthy said, per reporting from The Washington Post.
McCarthy also claimed that these purported terrorists were entering the country from places like Yemen, Iran and Sri Lanka. Border agents “even talked about Chinese, as well,” the California Republican said.
None of the claims made by McCarthy on Monday hold up to scrutiny. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has not responded to media inquiries regarding McCarthy’s assertions, and the lawmaker’s office has similarly not provided any evidence that would confirm his statements.
The claims from McCarthy match those made by former President Donald Trump, who similarly said in 2018 that terrorists were being caught while crossing the border. Those claims by Trump could not be confirmed as well, and according to reporting from Reuters at the time, sources within the federal government said they were untrue.
Democratic members of Congress from states that share a border with Mexico were openly skeptical of McCarthy’s evidence-lacking claims. Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) said she also recently spoke with Border Patrol agents, none of whom made any comments suggesting terrorists were crossing the border.
In a tweet he authored on Monday, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) described the assertions by McCarthy as “weird,” and said that if such a thing were happening, he would have probably known about it, too.
“As the Chairman of the subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations and a border state member of Congress [I] haven’t heard anything about this,” Gallego said.
Weird as the Chairman of the subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations and a border state member of Congress haven’t heard anything about this. Gonna ask for a briefing. Pretty sure he is either wrong or lying. https://t.co/retrzeUPxV
— Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) March 15, 2021
The Arizona congressman added that he was going to request a briefing from McCarthy in order to learn more. But he also expressed doubts over the veracity of what the Republican leader had suggested.
“Pretty sure he is either wrong or lying,” Gallego said.
Despite McCarthy’s questionable claims, there is legitimate reason for concern about other matters pertaining to the U.S.’s southern border. Many more migrants than usual are coming to the U.S., fleeing poverty, natural disasters, crime and repressive governments from their home countries, overwhelming U.S. officials and their ability to process asylum claims.
The U.S. is witnessing a 20-year high in the number of migrants arriving at the border. Many of those who are braving the trek are young children, a number of whom are unaccompanied by adults, and who are being packed into detention centers in close proximity to each other during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, a worrying development for immigrant rights activists.
As of Sunday, around 4,200 children were being housed in these facilities, a 31 percent increase from one week prior. About 3,000 of those children have been stuck in the facilities for more than 72 hours, the legal limit for how long minors are meant to be kept before being transferred to health officials within the Office of Refugee Resettlement for more permanent housing solutions.
Journalists haven’t been allowed into these detention centers to document what’s happening, but lawyers representing the children have said the facilities are cramped and overcrowded. Children have reported that they lack basic hygiene needs, including soap, and that they have not had adequate access to food at times, the lawyers said.
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