Kyrsten Lea Sinema is an American politician and former social worker serving as the senior United States senator from Arizona, a seat she has held since 2019.
106 Facts About Kyrsten Sinema
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Kyrsten Sinema served three terms as a state representative for the 15th legislative district from 2005 to 2011, one term as the state senator for the 15th legislative district from 2011 to 2012, and three terms as the United States representative for the from 2013 to 2019.
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Kyrsten Sinema began her political career in the Arizona Green Party and rose to prominence for her progressive advocacy, supporting causes such as LGBT rights and opposing the war on terror.
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Kyrsten Sinema left the Green Party to join the Arizona Democratic Party in 2004 and was elected to a seat in the United States House of Representatives in 2012.
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Kyrsten Sinema won the 2018 Senate election to replace the retiring Jeff Flake, defeating Republican nominee Martha McSally.
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Kyrsten Sinema is the first openly bisexual and the second openly LGBT woman to be elected to the House of Representatives and to the Senate, in 2012 and 2018, respectively.
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Kyrsten Sinema was the first woman elected to the Senate from Arizona and is the only openly religiously unaffiliated member of Congress.
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Kyrsten Sinema is one of three independents in the Senate, the others being Bernie Sanders and Angus King, both of whom caucus with the Democrats.
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Kyrsten Sinema was born in Tucson, Arizona, on July 12,1976, to Marilyn and Dan Kyrsten Sinema.
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Kyrsten Sinema's parents divorced when she was a child, and her mother, who had custody of the children, remarried.
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Kyrsten Sinema has said that for two years they had no toilet or electricity while living there.
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Kyrsten Sinema was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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Kyrsten Sinema left the LDS Church after graduating from BYU.
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In 2003, Kyrsten Sinema became an adjunct professor teaching master's-level policy and grant-writing classes at Arizona State University School of Social Work and an adjunct business law professor at Arizona Summit Law School, formerly known as Phoenix School of Law.
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Kyrsten Sinema began her political career in the Arizona Green Party before joining the Arizona Democratic Party in 2004, and called herself a "Prada socialist".
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Kyrsten Sinema had organized 15 antiwar rallies by the time the Iraq War began.
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In 2002, Kyrsten Sinema first ran for the Arizona House of Representatives as an independent affiliated with the Arizona Green Party.
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Kyrsten Sinema finished in last place in a five-candidate field, receiving 8 percent of the vote.
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Kyrsten Sinema was reelected three times with over 30 percent of the vote.
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In 2008, Sinema completed the Harvard University John F Kennedy School of Government program for senior executives in state and local government as a David Bohnett LGBTQ Victory Institute Leadership Fellow.
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In 2009 and 2010, Kyrsten Sinema was an assistant Minority Leader for the Democratic Caucus of the Arizona House of Representatives.
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In 2010, Kyrsten Sinema was elected to the Arizona Senate, defeating Republican Bob Thomas, 63 to 37 percent.
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Later, when reporters asked about her use of the first person, Kyrsten Sinema replied, 'Duh, I'm bisexual.
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In 2006, Kyrsten Sinema told a radio host that she was "the most liberal member of the Arizona State Legislature".
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Kyrsten Sinema campaigned against Proposition 107, a referendum to ban the recognition of same-sex marriage and civil unions in Arizona.
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Kyrsten Sinema chaired a coalition called Protect Arizona's Freedom, which defeated Ward Connerly's goal to place an initiative on the state ballot that would eliminate racial-preference programs.
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In June 2009, Kyrsten Sinema was one of 32 state legislators appointed by President Barack Obama to the White House Health Reform Task Force, which helped shape the Affordable Care Act.
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In 2010, Kyrsten Sinema sponsored a bill to give in-state tuition to veterans; it was held in committee and did not receive a vote.
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Also in 2010, Kyrsten Sinema was named one of Time magazine's "40 Under 40".
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Kyrsten Sinema refused to support the successful effort to recall Republican Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce, saying she "love[d] him" and thought he should "run for Congress".
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In June 2011, Kyrsten Sinema said she was considering running for the US House of Representatives in 2012.
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Kyrsten Sinema lived in the same Phoenix neighborhood as incumbent Democratic congressman Ed Pastor, but was adamant that she would not challenge another Democrat in a primary.
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On January 3,2012, Kyrsten Sinema announced her bid for Congress, in the 9th congressional district.
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Parker ran campaign ads that accused Kyrsten Sinema of being an "anti-American hippie" who practiced "Pagan rituals".
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Kyrsten Sinema held a narrow lead over Parker, while provisional and absentee ballots were still being counted.
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Once all ballots were counted, Kyrsten Sinema won by 4 percentage points, over 10,000 votes.
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Kyrsten Sinema is the first openly bisexual person and second openly LGBT woman elected to the United States Congress.
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Kyrsten Sinema ran for reelection in 2014 and was unopposed in the Democratic primary, which took place on August 26,2014.
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Kyrsten Sinema faced Republican Wendy Rogers in the general election.
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Kyrsten Sinema was reelected with approximately 55 percent of the vote, beating Rogers by 13 points.
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Kyrsten Sinema worked for the adoption of the DREAM Act, hiring DREAM Act advocate Erika Andiola as a district outreach staffer.
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In 2015, Kyrsten Sinema was one of four Democrats to vote to give the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau an advisory role to banks, businesses, and credit unions.
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In 2017, Americans for Financial Reform, a progressive nonprofit, found Kyrsten Sinema had voted for 12 of the 19 bills it felt "served the interests or wishes of Wall Street and the financial industry at the expense of the public interest" that year.
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On September 28,2017, Kyrsten Sinema officially announced her candidacy for the Class I United States Senate seat held by Republican incumbent Jeff Flake, who declined to seek reelection the next month.
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In March 2018, Kyrsten Sinema donated to charity $33,800 in campaign contributions she had received from Ed Buck, a prominent Democratic donor who came under scrutiny after a homeless escort died of a drug overdose at his California home in 2017.
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Federal Election Commission filings released in April 2018 showed Kyrsten Sinema had raised over $8.2 million, more than the three leading Republican primary contenders combined.
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Kyrsten Sinema said she was "running on the issues people care about most, including offering quality, affordable health care and promoting economic opportunity".
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Journalist Jonathan Martin wrote in The New York Times in September 2018 that Kyrsten Sinema was running "one of the most moderate-sounding and cautious Senate campaigns this year, keeping the media at arms-length and avoiding controversial issues", and said her campaign was generally reluctant to bring up President Donald Trump.
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Kyrsten Sinema was sworn in with the 116th United States Congress on January 3,2019.
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Kyrsten Sinema is the first woman to represent Arizona in the United States Senate.
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Kyrsten Sinema is the first Democrat elected to represent Arizona in the chamber since Dennis DeConcini, who held her current seat from 1977 to 1995.
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Kyrsten Sinema was sworn in as a member of the US Senate on January 3,2019.
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Kyrsten Sinema is the senior US senator from Arizona; the junior US senator for Arizona is Democrat Mark Kelly.
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On February 14,2019, Kyrsten Sinema voted to confirm William Barr as attorney general.
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Kyrsten Sinema's spokeswoman explained that Sinema wore them to emphasize the importance of social distancing: by wearing wigs, she did not need to go to a hair salon.
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Kyrsten Sinema voted to convict Donald Trump in both his first and second impeachment trials.
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Kyrsten Sinema urged Senate colleagues to vote in favor of the proposed January 6 commission to further investigate the storming of the United States Capitol on January 6,2021.
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Murray and Kyrsten Sinema both cited a "personal family matter" for their absence.
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In October 2021, five of the veterans Kyrsten Sinema had selected for her advisory council as liaisons to the Arizona service member community resigned.
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Kyrsten Sinema was the only US elected official to attend the 2022 Bilderberg Conference, an annual private gathering of the European and North American political and business elite.
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In December 2022, Kyrsten Sinema announced that she had left the Democratic Party and registered as an independent.
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Kyrsten Sinema continues to caucus with the Democratic Party for committee assignments.
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Kyrsten Sinema has been described as a moderate to conservative Democrat, being generally socially liberal but fiscally moderate-to-conservative.
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Kyrsten Sinema has cited US Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, as a role model.
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Kyrsten Sinema was one of the most conservative House Democrats during her tenure.
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In 2015 and 2016, Kyrsten Sinema did not vote for Nancy Pelosi for speaker of the US House.
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Kyrsten Sinema said that she would not caucus with the Republicans but that she reached an agreement with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to retain her committee assignments through the Democratic caucus, though she would not attend caucus meetings.
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Kyrsten Sinema was endorsed by EMILY's List, an abortion-rights-focused political action committee, until 2022, when she voted with Republicans against changing the filibuster to allow passage of the Freedom to Vote and John R Lewis Voting Rights Act.
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Kyrsten Sinema has served as an Advisory Board Member of the Arizona Death Penalty Forum.
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Kyrsten Sinema was a presenter at their 2010 Spring Conference, which was co-sponsored by Amnesty International and the ACLU of Arizona.
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On February 5,2019, Kyrsten Sinema voted for a bill that would make improvements to certain defense and security assistance provisions, authorize the appropriation of funds to Israel, and reauthorize the United States-Jordan Defense Cooperation Act of 2015.
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Kyrsten Sinema was one of three Democrats to break with her party and vote for the tax cuts being made permanent.
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On March 5,2021, Kyrsten Sinema voted against an increase of the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
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Kyrsten Sinema did so by flashing a thumbs-down, and some commentators compared her demeanor to that of former Arizona senator John McCain, who had voted with a dramatic thumbs-down gesture in 2017; others compared her to former French queen Marie Antoinette, to whom the phrase "let them eat cake" is attributed.
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In February 2019, Kyrsten Sinema was one of 20 senators to sponsor the Employer Participation in Repayment Act, enabling employers to contribute up to $5,250 to their employees' student loans.
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In 2019, Kyrsten Sinema was one of four Democratic-caucusing senators to join all Republicans in voting against the Green New Deal, a stimulus program that aims to address climate change and economic inequality, while most other Democrats voted "present".
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On February 12,2019, Kyrsten Sinema voted along with the whole Senate for the Natural Resources Management Act, which provides for the management of the natural resources of the United States.
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Kyrsten Sinema was opposed to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and helped organize anti-war protests while a law student at Arizona State University.
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Kyrsten Sinema was involved in organizing a Phoenix-area group called the Arizona Alliance for Peaceful Justice.
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Kyrsten Sinema was described in news reports as an organizer and sponsor of the rally and was listed as the point of contact for the event.
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Kyrsten Sinema voted against repealing the Affordable Care Act, but has called for reforms to the law.
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Kyrsten Sinema voted to delay the imposition of fines on those who did not purchase insurance in 2014.
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Kyrsten Sinema voted to repeal the Medical Device Tax and for the Keep Your Health Plan Act of 2013.
84.
In 2021, Kyrsten Sinema opposed prescription drug pricing reform proposals in House and Senate versions of a Democrat-crafted spending bill.
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Observers have noted that Kyrsten Sinema is one of the largest beneficiaries of pharmaceutical political action committee money in Congress, and has been described as a "Pharma Favorite".
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Kyrsten Sinema, who has emerged as the leading Democratic opponent in the Senate to her party's drug pricing proposal, received more than $27,000 from PACs of pharmaceutical companies, including Astellas, Sunovion, Takeda, Horizon, Eli Lilly, Abbvie, Alexion and Lundbeck.
87.
In 2006, Kyrsten Sinema was among the leading opponents of a proposed amendment to the Arizona state constitution which would have banned same-sex marriages and civil unions.
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Kyrsten Sinema was one of 24 House Democrats to vote in favor of Kate's Law, a bill that would expand maximum sentences for foreigners who attempt to reenter the country, legally or illegally, after having been deported, denied entry or removed, and for foreign felons who attempt to reenter the country.
89.
Kyrsten Sinema voted for the SAFE Act, which expanded the refugee screening process to require signatures from the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Director of National Intelligence for each refugee entering the country.
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Kyrsten Sinema has argued that mass deportation of undocumented immigrants is not an option and supported the DREAM Act.
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On March 14,2019, Kyrsten Sinema voted against Trump's National Emergency declaration on border security.
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On February 4,2021, Kyrsten Sinema voted against providing COVID-19 pandemic financial support to undocumented immigrants.
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In June 2013, Kyrsten Sinema became one of 29 original cosponsors of the bipartisan LIBERT-E Act, along with Representative Justin Amash.
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In July 2013, Kyrsten Sinema joined a bipartisan majority and voted against an amendment to a defense appropriations bill to prohibit the NSA from monitoring and recording details of US citizens' telecommunications without a warrant.
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On January 25,2021, a spokesperson for Kyrsten Sinema told The Washington Post that she is "against eliminating the filibuster" and "not open to changing her mind" on the issue.
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Additionally, Kyrsten Sinema has spoken out on the elimination of the judicial filibuster as a key reason for increased politicization of the judiciary.
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In 2016, Kyrsten Sinema was one of five House Democrats to vote for a Republican-backed bill barring the Federal Communications Commission from regulating broadband rates.
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Kyrsten Sinema's vote broke from her party; other Democrats were strongly opposed to the measure, and President Obama said he would veto it if it passed.
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In 2019, Kyrsten Sinema was the sole Senate Democrat not to co-sponsor the Save the Internet Act, which would restore Obama-era regulations preventing ISPs from throttling consumers' website traffic.
100.
Kyrsten Sinema worked with Senate Republican Roger Wicker to develop their own net neutrality bill.
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Kyrsten Sinema married, and later divorced, her BYU classmate Blake Dain.
102.
Kyrsten Sinema has been reported to be the only atheist member of Congress, although she has rejected the label.
103.
On November 17,2013, Kyrsten Sinema completed an Ironman Triathlon in a little over 15 hours.
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Kyrsten Sinema was the second active member of Congress, after Senator Jeff Merkley, to finish a long-distance triathlon, and the first to complete an Ironman-branded race.
105.
Kyrsten Sinema completed the 2015 Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii.
106.
On December 25,2013, Kyrsten Sinema climbed to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.