In a mega, seven-figure ad campaign against Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), a progressive group is putting pressure on the moderate Democrat to use her role in the Senate to ram through a partisan election bill.
As reported by NBC News, the “group, Just Democracy, is spending $1.2 million for TV ads and another $200,000 on digital ads in Arizona from June 21 to June 30, said a spokesman for the group, adding the effort will feature two ads on cable news programs, local news and local sports in the state.”
Sinema is a co-sponsor of the “For the People Act,” an election overhaul bill that has little to no Republican support in the Senate. Her actions don’t seem to be enough for progressives, however, who have once against come out in full force to decry the actions of the Arizona senator, pressuring her to take action to push through the legislation.
In one of the ads put out by the progressive group, it portrayed images of Sinema voting against raising the minimum wage and said that she “didn’t even show up” to vote on a January 6 commission. Sinema has said that she had a “personal family matter” during the commission vote, and her office said “she would’ve voted yes.”
The ad criticized Sinema’s actions and blamed her for the inability of Democrats to push through election reform legislation. “As the GOP tries to silence our voices, she’s just standing by, supporting a Jim Crow relic instead,” it said. “You’re refusing to stand with us, Senator Sinema. Why should we stand with you?”
Another ad with several activists, including an indigenous activist, community activist, and union organizer, once again appeared to claim that voter laws are a “Jim Crow relic” and the rights of certain people to vote is “under attack.”
The group’s website explained its controversial stances on current issues, saying, “We start by calling for eliminating the filibuster, abolishing the electoral college, reforming the Supreme Court, and passing D.C. statehood. The American government does not look like the will of the people, and neither does its policies.”
A spokesperson for the Arizona senator said in an email to NBC News: “Kyrsten believes the right to vote, faith in the integrity of our electoral process, and trust in elected officials are critical to the health and vitality of our democracy. She is a co-sponsor and supporter of both the For The People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act because she supports legislation restoring critical safeguards that protect every American’s right to vote.”
Regarding her stance against getting rid of the filibuster, Sinema has said that it “protects the democracy of our nation rather than allowing our country to ricochet wildly every two to four years.”
“To those who say that we must make a choice between the filibuster and ‘X,’ I say, this is a false choice. The reality is that when you have a system that is not working effectively — and I would think that most would agree that the Senate is not a particularly well-oiled machine, right? The way to fix that is to fix your behavior, not to eliminate the rules or change the rules, but to change the behavior,” Sinema said earlier this month.
A little over a week ago, Arizona Democrats put similar pressure on Sinema to abolish the filibuster in order to force through President Joe Biden’s plans.
As The Daily Wire reported, in a letter sent to Senator Sinema, “members of Arizona’s state House and Senate argued that Republicans are enacting voter suppression bills across the nation and tasked Sinema with helping to pass the Democrats’ voting rights bill.”
“The 2020 general election saw record-breaking levels of voter participation across the country,” the letter read, as reported by HuffPost. “But instead of celebrating this historic achievement, our freedom to vote is being threatened in state legislatures across the country.”
“Given Republican obstruction, the bill will die in the U.S. Senate unless members are willing to work outside the box. We call on you to do everything necessary, up to and including reforming the filibuster, to pass the ‘For the People Act.’ Our democracy is too important to be sacrificed at the altar of archaic and anti-democratic Senate procedures such as the filibuster,” the letter asserted. “As fellow Arizona legislators we are calling upon you with respect and urgency to stand up in this crucial moment for our state and for our country to make the promise of democracy real for us all.”
Watch the ads below:
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Source: Dailywire
