They are furious.
In a statement on Saturday (January 22), Arizona Democratic Party announced it had decided to “formally censure” Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) as a result of the Arizona Senator choosing not to change the 60-vote threshold filibuster.
Issuing a public rebuke, the executive board chose to call out Sinema for siding with Republicans in the filibuster vote.
In the statement, Raquel Terán, Arizona Democratic Party Chair mentioned that the party was diverse “with plenty of room for policy disagreements” before saying that given the “urgency to protect voting rights,” choosing between “an archaic legislative norm and protecting Arizonans’ right to vote, we choose the latter, and we always will.
Citing efforts by Republicans to restrict voter access, Terán said it was important for Democrats to pursue federal voting rights legislation to protect the democracy.
Terán continued, writing in the statement that the ADP Executive Board took “no pleasure in this announcement” but “decided to formally censure Senator Sinema as a result of her failure to do whatever it takes to ensure the health of our democracy.”
Despite being appreciative of Sinema’s role in passing the coronavirus relief legislation and taking the lead on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the Arizona Democrats said they could not ignore the filibuster vote since the consequences of not passing the federal legislation would be “too large and far-reaching.”
However, Sinema’s office had previously mentioned that the Senator supported voting rights legislation but not changing the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold.
This statement reiterates remarks made by Sinema during an intense speech on the Senate floor in which she said she wouldn’t be supporting “separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division affecting our country.”
