EMILYs List Endorses Kyrsten Sinema for Arizona Senate
September 29, 2017
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Kyrsten Sinema for the U.S. Senate in Arizona. Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILYs List, released the following statement:
“For Kyrsten, creating opportunity and supporting hardworking Arizona families isn’t just good politics, it’s personal. Kyrsten grew up overcoming poverty in her own family, and she never forgot where she came from. That’s why it’s no surprise that Kyrsten is known as one of the most bipartisan leaders in Congress – she’s always willing to work with and listen to anybody who’s interested in giving Arizona families a shot at success.”
“The same can’t be said about Senator Jeff Flake, who has voted in lock-step with his party through attempt after attempt to take away health care coverage from hundreds of thousands of Arizonans and restrict women's access to life-saving care, including defunding Planned Parenthood. Kyrsten’s lived experience and commitment to Arizona women and hardworking families makes her an indispensable leader in Congress, and the EMILYs List community is thrilled to endorse her campaign for Senate.”
Kyrsten Sinema always puts solutions ahead of politics because she is committed to seeing Arizona families succeed. She grew up in a family that struggled to get by, and experienced homelessness as a child when her father lost his job and her family lived for a time in an abandoned gas station without electricity or running water. In Congress, she joined the “Problem Solvers Coalition” to tackle waste and inefficiency in government and take on the biggest challenges facing working families. She led the House freshmen in supporting the Violence Against Women Act, and worked to ensure military sexual assault survivors receive disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. When elected to the U.S. Senate, Kyrsten will continue to break through partisan gridlock, especially when the stakes are so high for Arizonans she's dedicated to serving.
Kyrsten is running against Senator Jeff Flake, one of the most vulnerable Republicans up for reelection in 2018. This is an opportunity to flip a seat from red to blue, and a must-win race with high stakes for Arizona families. Flake has repeatedly gambled with the lives of millions of Americans and worked to advance a dangerous health care agenda at the expense of the working families he was elected to serve. Now that he’s deeply unpopular in Arizona, Flake is brandishing his lockstep support for his party and President Trump’s agenda as he faces a competitive, conservative primary challenger. The GOP cannot afford to lose Flake, a reliable deciding vote for their dangerous agenda, and deep-pocketed special interests will be sure to do everything in their power to help him hold onto this seat.
EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $500 million to support pro-choice Democratic women candidates – making them one of the most successful political organizations ever. Our grassroots community of over five million members helps Democratic women wage competitive campaigns – and win. We recruit and train candidates, support strong campaigns, research the issues that impact women and families, and turn out women voters. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect 116 women to the House, 23 to the Senate, 12 governors, and over 800 to state and local office. Forty percent of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. Since the 2016 election, thousands of women and counting have reached out to us about running for office. To harness this energy, EMILYs List has launched Run to Win, an unprecedented effort to get more women to run at the local, state, and national levels.
