Emily’s List is trying to bully Kyrsten Sinema into dumping the filibuster for ‘voting rights’ by threatening to cut her off from future endorsements and financial support.
NEWSMAX – Emily’s List, the largest financial contributor to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s campaign for office, is threatening to cut off its support of the Arizona Democrat if she keeps refusing to agree to change the Senate’s filibuster rules in a push to pass the party’s voting legislation.
“We want to make it clear, if Sen. Sinema cannot support a path forward for the passage of this legislation, we believe she undermines the foundations of our democracy, her own path to victory and also the mission of Emily’s List, and we will be unable to endorse her moving forward,” Laphonza Butler, the organization’s president, said in a statement Tuesday, reports The Washington Post.
Emily’s List, the nation’s largest funding and endorsement source for female Democrat candidates who support abortion rights, believes that access to voting and confidence in election results is vital to its mission, Butler added.
“Sen. Sinema’s decision to reject the voices of allies, partners, and constituents who believe the importance of voting rights outweighs that of an arcane process means she will find herself standing alone in the next election,” she said.
Emily’s List has joined with “many others” to impress to Sinema that the voting rights legislation is important, but “those concerns have not been addressed,” Butler added.
The powerful organization contributed $405,588 in Sinema’s 2018 race for the Senate, eclipsing her next fundraising source by almost $200,000, according to Open Secrets.
Sinema responded to the threat by doubling down on the need for the filibuster:
Sinema, in response to the threat from Emily’s List, said it is vital to keep the filibuster, and that the procedure has been used repeatedly in the past “to protect against wild swings in federal policy, including in the area of protecting women’s health care, reports The New York Times.
“Different people of good faith can have honest disagreements about policy and strategy,” the Arizona Democrat said. “Such honest disagreements are normal, and I respect those who have reached different conclusions on how to achieve our shared goals of addressing voter suppression and election subversion, and making the Senate work better for everyday Americans.”
I’m so glad Sinema isn’t backing down. I know her values are completely different as a Democrat, but between her and Manchin, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen tougher politicians under this amount of pressure.