One night just about four years ago, I was in the Rose Room at Station 4, waiting to participate in what was then an unprecedented event in Dallas — a debate of sorts between official representatives from the campaigns of then-senators and Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Arizona state Sen. Kyrsten Sinema
While I was standing around waiting for organizers to tell me it was time to start, a vivacious young woman with short blond hair walked up and introduced herself to me as Kyrsten. It was kind of loud in the Rose Room then and so I couldn’t clearly hear what she was telling me. I did hear her say that she was from Arizona, and that she was backing Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination. I thought she was an Obama campaign staffer.
Before long, though, I found out that Kyrsten was actually Arizona State Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, that state’s first legislator who was an out and proud member of the LGBT community.
I was impressed with the young woman’s personality and her passion. So since then, I have kind of kept up with Sinema through news stories about her on the Internet. I read with interest the news reports two years ago with Sinema was elected to the Arizona State Senate. I was actually quite pleased today when I read that Sinema has announced she is resigning from the state Senate to run from Congress representing Arizona’s newly drafted 9th District.
Don’t take that as an endorsement of Sinema’s campaign for Congress. I just mean that I believe our community has a better chance of making progress toward full equality when there are members of our community holding elected office, and we can’t have LGBT elected if we don’t have LGBT candidates. And from what I hear, Sinema is a strong candidate.
According to the Phoenix New Times, Sinema is the only Democrat to have officially declared a candidacy in District 9, although another state senator, David Schapira has formed an exploratory committee for a possible congressional run, and Arizona Democratic Party Chair Andrei Cherny is also rumored to be considering joining the race.
As the New Times also pointed out, in Arizona, members of Congress aren’t required to live in the district they represent. And Sinema actually lives in District 6. She chose to run for District 9, however, because it is more progressive than her home district, which leans toward the Republican side.
And speaking of Republicans, the New Times said Congressman Ben Quayle (yes, the son of former Vice President Dan Quayle), who lives in District 9, is likely to run instead in District 6 where he would face Congressman David Schweikert in the Republican Primary.
Turning back to the Democrats, Sinema, in announcing her candidacy on her Facebook page, said: “I’ve decided to run for Congress because we need to wake up Washington! I will fight for the forgotten middle class and stand up to a system that is rigged against them.”
You can watch her video announcing her candidacy below.
Openly bi? Think again. If Sinema is bi I’m the king of England.
Sinema is bi. She announced it herself a few years ago, probably to forstall any potential “outing” of the information. Since Dist. 9 includes portions of heavily-Morman Mesa, I wonder how her sexual orientation will play in that portion of the district? She seems intelligent, which makes her different from some Arizona politicians, but she sure doesn’t offer anythig different or new in her goal to head to Washington. She is good at one thing: self-promotion. Anyone who didn’t figure out about 5 years ago that she was bucking for a run for congress is pretty out of touch. Her book was a joke; probably sold all of 100 copies to her friends and relatives. The bills she sponsors are very safe. For example, after the Tucson shootings of Congresswoman Giffords, et al, Sinema sprang into action and introduced a bill to prohibit hate-type protesters from demonstrating withi 100 feet or yards of a funeral. Wow. Groundbreaking. She did piss off the Hispanic community with her sponsorship of one bill regarding human smuggling, but this might be a case of the lesser of the two evils. Who will she be running against?
Out, Ken Cheuvront was elected in 1994, and recently retired from the Arizona State Sentate due to term limits. Give credit where credit is due Ms.Sinema. You are a good role model, but you are not the first in Arizona State Legislature.