Kyrsten Sinema, a senator considered "Biden's Democratic nemesis"

Sinema believes that the best political option for the country is bipartisanship, words that on many occasions caused discomfort in the extreme wing of his former party.

Published by

Verónica Silveri Pazos

9 de diciembre, 2022

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Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema has been considered on several occasions by national and international media as "Biden's Democratic enemy". For the official -who announced her retirement from the ranks of the Democratic Party- there is no better political option for the country than bipartisanship, words that on many occasions generated annoyance among the extremists of her former parliamentary group.

In a speech last September, he explained that one of the biggest pressures members of Congress deal with is working with extremist figures in each party:

Increasingly, Americans seem to be told that to be a member of either political party, you must adhere to a strict list of political views (...) But I don't think that's how most Arizonans, Kentuckians or ordinary Americans think.

Sinema is known to be a controversial and controversial official. He was the first member of Congress to claim to be a non-believer in any religion. And the first openly bisexual person to hold a seat.

Political career

He was born in 1976, in Tucson, Arizona. He grew up in a right-wing Mormon family. She is a lawyer and social worker. She began her political career in the Green Party and rose to fame for supporting causes such as LGBT rights and opposition to the war on terror.

In 2004, he left the Green Party to join the Democratic Party. There he served three terms - from 2005 to 2011 - as state representative for Arizona's 15th district . She served one term as a state senator from 2011 to 2012. And he carried three terms as representative for Arizona' s 9th district from 2013 to 2019. In Congress he joined the New Democrat Coalition, the Blue Dog Coalition and the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.

He racked up one of the most conservative voting records in the Democratic caucus. During the 116th Congress, he voted in favor of former President Donald Trump's positions 25% of the time, the third most of any Democratic senator, behind Joe Manchin and Mark Kelly.

From 2019 to the present, she serves as a senator for the state of Arizona.

A moderate democrat

"Sinema positions itself in the most right-wing of the Democratic Party." In the first 100 days of Joe Biden's presidency, he voted against the majority propositions of his former party:

- He said no to the proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour as part of the stimulus package to deal with the effects of the pandemic.

- He was among the Democratic senators who opposed the appointment of Neera Tanden - Biden's nominee - to head the White House budget.

- He is against the Green New Deal and the abolition of the filibuster, a procedure that allows a bill to be stopped or stopped in the Senate.

- In April 2021, he supported Arizona Republican Governor Doug Ducey in declaring a state of emergency due to the pandemic.

- He supported sending National Guard troops to the Arizona-Mexico border to deal with an immigration crisis.

- He considered introducing a bipartisan bill with Senator John Cornyn (R) of Texas to stem the flow of migrants across the border with Mexico.

Some of these actions generated strong criticism from the more progressive wing of the Democratic Party and followers of progressive thinking. In the summer of 2021, a group of climate activists organized protests in front of his Phoenix office. They were joined by civil rights activists and labor movement figures.