Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) has spoken out against the Arizona Democratic Party’s (ADP) decision to censure Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) for killing voting rights legislation by voting to uphold the Senate filibuster.
A spokesperson for Kelly’s reelection campaign, Sarah Guggenheimer, told the Arizona Republic on Tuesday that the lawmaker, who had voted with the rest of the Democrats to reform the filibuster last week, “does not support the censure” of his fellow Arizona senator.
“While they came to different decisions on this vote, he looks forward to continuing to work with Senator Sinema on Arizona priorities, as they have done during his first year in the Senate to pass critical infrastructure investments that will create good-paying jobs,” Guggenheimer said.
The ADP board voted to censure Sinema on Saturday over “her failure to do whatever it takes to ensure the health of our democracy,” party chair Raquel Terán announced.
Several days prior to the censure, the ADP had put out an angry response to Sinema’s vote that directly compared her actions to that of Kelly, who “courageously voted to defend the voting rights of millions of Arizonans.”
“In the face of unprecedented attacks against our right to vote in this state, he fulfilled his promise to Arizonans — not a singular political party — and chose to protect our safe, popular, and longstanding vote-by-mail system,” the ADP said.
