With McCain in mind, Sinema seeks bipartisanship

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WASHINGTON (AP) – More than for his shock of purple hair or his unpredictable votes, Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema is perhaps best known for doing the unthinkable in Washington: spending time on the Republican side of the aisle.

Not only does she spend her days chatting with Republican senators, but she’s known to hide in their private GOP locker room – absolutely unheard of – and joke with the GOP leadership. She and Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell often speak to each other on the phone.

Sinema’s years in Congress were a whirlwind of political style and puzzling substance, an antiwar liberal turned negotiating centrist who now sits at the highest levels of power. A key negotiator of the bipartite infrastructure compromise, she was among those President Joe Biden first called to make the deal – then called again as he worked hard for save the deal from collapse. A brake on change Senate rules on obstruction, she faces tremendous pressure to act as a voting rights in its own state and others are at stake.

“If anyone can succeed, it’s Kyrsten,” said David Lujan, a former Democratic colleague of Sinema in Arizona State House. “She’s incredibly smart, so she can figure out where people have in common and get things done.”

The senator’s theory of how to govern in Washington will be put to the test in the coming weeks as Congress strives to transform the infrastructure compromise in law and mounts a response to Supreme Court ruling upholding Arizona’s tough new voting rules.

She models her approach on the renegade style of late Senator John McCain, the Arizona compatriot she strives to emulate, but aspiring to daring bipartisanship is a challenge in the post-Trump era of hardened political bunkers and fierce cultural tribalism. Many in her own party scoff at her GOP overtures and criticize her for not playing hardball.

His name is now spoken alongside West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin as two Democrats standing in the way of changing the systematic obstruction rules demanding 60 votes to move legislation forward – a priority for Liberals working to pass Biden’s platform in the 50-50 Senate. This year, she voted against increasing the minimum wage and opposed the Green New Deal focused on climate change, even if she is not totally opposed to either of these policies. She declined an interview request.

“It is the easiest thing in the world for politicians to declare the death of bipartisanship and to align themselves with the respective sides of a partisan battle,” she said in a statement to The Associated Press . “What’s more difficult is getting out of our comfort zones, finding common ground with unlikely allies, and forming coalitions that can achieve lasting and lasting results.”

Sinema arrived in Washington with a burst of energy and a fashion swoosh. She quickly became one of the top vote counters in the House, tied with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, due to her visits across the aisle. She has voted against Pelosi more than once as a speaker.

Her first Senate speech was inspired by McCain’s farewell speech, a marker of where she was heading. She changed the decades-old Senate dress code by simply wearing what she wants – and daring anyone to stop her. The purple wig was a nod to the lockdown of the coronavirus pandemic. (Outside of working hours, she was seen wearing a ring with a curse-like “buzz off”.)

“People can argue about her sincerity, but the truth is that she is making an active decision that she is going to work well with other people – and I haven’t seen her go wrong,” Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry said. from North Carolina, who served with her at home.

Sinema’s status as a bipartisan leader fascinates those who have seen her decades-long rise in Arizona politics, where she began as a lone left-wing activist who worked for Ralph’s Green Party’s 2000 presidential campaign. Nader, then slowly re-equipped into a moderate activist. to work across the aisle.

“Ideologically it surprises me,” said Steven Yarbrough, a Republican who served 12 years with Sinema in the Arizona legislature, of his transformation. “But given how smart and motivated she is, well, that doesn’t surprise me at all.”

That Sinema had even made it that far seemed unlikely. Her parents divorced when she was young and she moved with her mother and stepfather from Tucson to Florida, where she lived in an abandoned gas station for three years.

Determined to succeed, she graduated from local high school as a valedictorian at the age of 16 and graduated from Brigham Young University in Utah at 18, leaving the Church of Jesus Christ. of Latter-day Saints, in which she was raised. , after graduation.

Sinema landed in Phoenix, where she obtained several other degrees – including a law degree and a doctorate – worked as a social worker and then as a lawyer, vehemently protested against the war in Iraq and fought for the rights of immigrants and LGBTQ people at a time when Arizona was turning to the right. . In 2004, she was elected to the state legislature representing a fairly liberal region and was initially a backbench MP who threw rhetorical bombs from the left.

But Sinema has written and spoken extensively about how she discovered the merits of moderation while serving in the GOP-controlled state legislature. She wrote a book called “Unite and Conquer” on the need for leftists to compromise and make deals.

In 2006, she co-chaired a bipartisan group to fight the ban on same-sex marriage on the ballot and had to decide whether to just condemn the ban or try to defeat it, said Steve May, the former Republican lawmaker. who collaborated with her.

A heavy poll consumer, she helped develop a strategy to target retired older heterosexual couples who may also lose benefits under the ballot measure due to their single status. They narrowly managed to defeat him. (Another ban passed two years later.)

“She came by giving speeches and leading protests, and she learned that she can actually win,” May said.

When a seat in Congress opened in a bluish part of the eastern suburbs of Phoenix, Sinema showed up and won.

She had once again become an ideal candidate for a State which was gradually becoming competitive. And in 2018, she seized the opportunity by winning the open seat in the Senate.

Her infrastructure work is just one of many bipartisan Senate “gangs” where she tests her theory of governance. She is set to launch a minimum wage proposal with Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah and is involved with others on changes to immigration law.

“Kyrsten is always honest and straightforward, two often underestimated qualities that are the hallmarks of a successful lawmaker,” said Sen. John Thune, the Republican whip of South Dakota, one of those Sinema often seeks out. for conversation.

In a statement to the PA, Thune said that “while we certainly don’t agree on all issues,” he hopes she is transparent with him, and he respects her “sincere pursuit of bipartisanship.”

Charming and fun in private conversations, Sinema takes pride in participating in marathons and triathlons, while maintaining a notoriously colorful wardrobe – even in the days of the Green Party, she considered herself a “Prada socialist.”

Rising recently from the Senate, she brushed off journalists’ questions about the infrastructure talks. She wore a fake tuxedo bib dress that day paired with a suit jacket. Why?

She does what she wants, she suggested, shrugging, before getting into a waiting car.

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Riccardi reported from Denver.

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