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“I would say ‘it is unacceptable that we are giving up here,'” she told CNN. “Have a glass of wine.”
The deal is the culmination of Sinema’s eight-year congressional career. As the top Democratic Senate negotiator, she has been in regular contact with Biden by phone or sitting across from him in the Oval Office.
Steven Slugocki, the former Democratic Party chairman of Maricopa County, Arizona, in Phoenix, said that while Sinema had promised to “get things done,” she “has so far failed to keep her promises.” and said the bill “does not go far enough for what this historic opportunity calls for.”
“His constituents are frustrated, disappointed and angry – and rightly so,” Slugocki said. “Voters are looking for leadership and action, not to uphold unnecessary old traditions of the Senate. The time for real results has come.”
Garrick Taylor, a senior Arizona Chamber of Commerce official, told CNN the bill included a number of victories: expanding high-speed internet access, upgrading border crossings along the border Mexican-American and improve technology to facilitate water management. The state chamber tweeted a “thank you” to Sinema, noting that the bill did not raise taxes for “job creators.”
Sinema’s relationship with Republicans proved crucial when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced he would force a vote to get the bill last week, before they wrote it down. or even made a deal.
Republicans lambasted the move, saying the group was not ready. Without the support of 10 Republicans, the bill was stalled. Asked by reporters what she was going to do, Sinema said she was just going to keep working as if nothing had really changed.
“What others do is less important than what we do,” she said.
Republican Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, a member of the bipartisan group, said Sinema had played a vital role in moving the talks forward.
“There were a couple of times we got bogged down and started questioning things that had been resolved a long time ago – and she just said ‘stop’,” Murkowski said. “She called him.”
The White House also appreciated Sinema’s approach. In the first few weeks of the administration, Biden’s team worked to get a reading of the senator’s first term, according to several officials. She just wasn’t as well-known for a commodity as West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, another critical centrist Democrat in the 50-50 Senate, they said. But his role in the Democratic caucus was no mystery.
“It was pretty clear from day one that we always need to make sure we know where Senator Sinema is, whatever the problem,” an administration official said.
A test took place in January, when Vice President Kamala Harris conducted interviews on local television in West Virginia and Arizona to tout the new Covid relief legislation. Capitol Hill Democrats saw this as a deliberate effort to pressure Sinema and Manchin to support the legislation. Manchin was quick to express his displeasure with the administration for not contacting him in advance. Sinema, in particular, did not say anything in public.
This decision was noted inside the White House and served as a window into what has been a key part of her relationship with Biden: She will share her point of view and, most importantly, ensure that the White House does not. will not be surprised by its position on a post. It just won’t appear in the press first.
The president contacted her in person or by phone at key times throughout the infrastructure negotiations: when Biden’s initial talks with Republicans collapsed, when a framework was close to being concluded in June and when Biden appeared to question that deal by tying his passage to a separate $ 3.5 trillion bill.
When negotiations collapsed this week, Sinema was again in the Oval Office. The deal was made on Wednesday
While Sinema, 45, is now garnering applause from the right-wing, her career began two decades ago working for the Green Party during Ralph Nader’s presidential race in 2000. She went on to become an anti-war activist. dressed in a pink tutu and lost her first candidacy for Arizona House as an Independent in 2002. She then ran as a Democrat in 2004 – and won – and served there until 2010 before moving on. jump to the State Senate.
Alejandra Gomez, a progressive activist with the Arizona Center for Empowerment, told CNN she remembers when Sinema brought her pizza in 2010 as she held a protest against a state bill that allowed police to verify a person’s immigration status if there was a “reasonable suspicion” that the person was illegally in the US Critics said the bill led to racial profiling .
In 2012, Sinema ran for a competitive House District in suburban Phoenix, won, and joined the centrist committees of Congress. She voted against California Rep. Nancy Pelosi as the Democratic House leader and built a reputation for working across the aisle on the Financial Services Committee.
But she also had a background that appealed to the left, as she emerged from her impoverished roots, and in 2018 Sinema became the first Arizona Democrat to be elected senator since Dennis DeConcini was re-elected in 1988. She is also the first state senator to be a woman, openly bisexual, and describe her religion as “none”.
In some ways, Sinema’s brutal style and propensity to deal with his own party mimics McCain.
But its centrist positions have infuriated some Democrats, who say the state faces a series of crises – water shortages, climate change, evictions – that it is not prepared to face.
And she spoke out against passing a $ 3.5 trillion bill that would fund climate initiatives, a universal preschool and community college, establish paid family and medical leave, expand credit to child tax and would add dental, visual and hearing benefits to Medicare, among others. proposals. She is open to passing the budget, but not to a bill that costs so much money.
“I thought there was an agreement between the Democrats, but obviously not,” said Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Some Democrats are looking for someone to campaign against Sinema when she runs for reelection in 2024.
“If we have to find a new candidate, we are ready to do it as Arizonans,” said Gomez.
A few strategists who helped kick off New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s shocked campaign in 2018 have already set their sights on the senator through a new PAC called No Excuses. Corbin Trent told CNN that PAC plans to run radio and digital ads next week.
“We’re going to start to ramp up and make sure people are aware of how little she cares about not just Arizona, but this country,” Trent said.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misspelled Kyrsten Sinema’s first name.
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