Kyrsten Sinema is running for Senate in Arizona. This is the seat currently held by Jeff Flake, who is not running for re-election (John McCain’s seat will be filled in a special election in 2020).
Sinema has held public office since 2004. She was elected to the Arizona house of representatives at that year, and to the Arizona senate in 2010. She won the congressional election for Arizona’s 9th district in 2012.
You wouldn’t know this from the attack ads being run by her opponent, Martha McSally. They would have you believe that Sinema is an unknown extremist. McSally is attacking Sinema for her opposition to the Iraq war. Sinema was an activist in 2003, and was part of several protests against the war. McSally, an ardent Trumper, has run ads ads claiming Sinema opposes the troops. This may seem like a strange strategy when over 70% of Americans have an unfavorable view of the war in Iraq. But McSally thinks it’s a winning strategy to remind Arizonas that Sinema understood this war was a mistake before most others did. But hey, Sinema wore a pink tutu to one of those protests, maybe Arizonans will find that a bridge too far.
McSally may not be the sharpest knife in the Republican senate candidate drawer, since she seems to have the political instincts of someone who orders MAGA merchandise off cable TV ads. :
Arizona Rep. Martha McSally, faced reporters’ questions about the topic, she comically suggested that health care was irrelevant to voters and instead claimed that Arizonans cared more about the “caravan” conspiracy theory cooked up by Trump and his right-wing cheerleaders. McSally’s deer-in-the-headlight moment captured perfectly the GOP’s attempt to distract voters from their record on health care by resorting to racist scare tactics. — www.washingtonpost.com/...
Sinema has, over the past decade, edged away from her radical, activist politics. She chaired the Blue Dog PAC and currently allies with the conservative Democratic faction. It’s also possible that the country has come around to many of her views (such as Iraq) and she has changed her views on others. Her positions are about what you would expect a Democrat running in a red, perhaps slightly purple state. Her primary and general election campaign have focused on her personal story, especially her family’s sometimes precarious financial existence. As it does for many children, a brief period when her family was homeless, left a strong impression on Sinema.
Ten days away from the election, there’s no room to waver. We need these seats to control the Senate. There is a lot of news out there, but let’s stop wasting our time on the news. It’s time to do the only thing that matters in the ten days left.
Get. Out. The. Vote.
Find a campaign, and work it. Perhaps it’ll be the Sinema campaign, or you could volunteer for any one of the dozens of critical house races or the 14 critical Senate races below. Either way, make judicious use of your time.
— @subirgrewal
You can donate to all 14 of Senate candidates (via ActBlue) in tight races or challenging an incumbent Republican. You can also use the same ActBlue Link to allocate different amounts to all or any one of the candidates.