Kyrsten Sinema
Kyrsten Lea Sinema is an American politician, lawyer, and former social worker who served from 2019 to 2025 as a United States senator from Arizona. A former member of the Democratic Party, Sinema became an independent in December 2022.
Sinema served three terms as a state representative for the 15th legislative district from 2005 to 2011, one term as the state senator for the 15th legislative district from 2011 to 2012, and three terms as the United States representative for the from 2013 to 2019. She began her political career in the Arizona Green Party and rose to prominence for her progressive advocacy, supporting causes such as LGBT rights and opposing the war on terror. She left the Green Party to join the Arizona Democratic Party in 2004 and was elected to a seat in the United States House of Representatives in 2012. After her election, she joined the New Democrat Coalition, the Blue Dog Coalition and the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, amassing one of the most conservative voting records in the Democratic caucus.
Sinema won the 2018 Senate election to replace the retiring Jeff Flake, defeating Republican nominee Martha McSally. She became the first openly bisexual and the second openly LGBTQ woman to be elected to the Senate. Sinema also became the first woman elected to the Senate from Arizona and the only religiously unaffiliated member of the Senate. She was one of four independents in the Senate, alongside Bernie Sanders, Angus King, and Joe Manchin, all of whom caucused with the Democrats.
Sinema was considered a key swing vote in the Senate during the 117th and 118th Congresses, when it was almost evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. On March 5, 2024, she announced she would not seek reelection and was succeeded by Democrat Ruben Gallego.
Early life and education
Sinema was born in Tucson, Arizona, on July 12, 1976, to Marilyn and Dan Sinema. She has an older brother and younger sister. Her father was an attorney. Her parents divorced when she was a child, and her mother, who had custody of the children, remarried. With her siblings, mother, and stepfather, Sinema moved to DeFuniak Springs, Florida, a small town on the Panhandle.Although she later became the only religiously unaffiliated member of the U.S. Senate, Sinema was raised as a Mormon.
Poverty and contradictions with family
Sinema has said that when her stepfather lost his job and the bank foreclosed on their home, the family lived for three years in an abandoned gas station and that for two years they had no toilet or electricity while living there. She later recalled: "My stepdad built a bunkbed for me and my sister. We separated our bunkbed from the kitchen with one of those big chalkboards on rollers. I knew that was weird. A chalkboard shouldn't be a wall. A kitchen should have running water."According to journalist Jonathan Martin in The New York Times, Sinema has given "contradictory answers about her early life," and her mother and stepfather have filed court documents saying they had made monthly payments for gas, electricity, and phone bills, even though Sinema had said they had been "without running water or electricity". Asked whether she had embellished details from her childhood, Sinema said, "I've shared what I remember from my childhood. I know what I lived through."
Higher education
She graduated as valedictorian from Walton High School in DeFuniak Springs at age 16 and earned her B.A. from Brigham Young University in 1995 at age 18. She left the LDS Church after graduating from BYU. Sinema returned to Arizona in 1995.While employed as a social worker, Sinema completed a Master of Social Work degree at Arizona State University in 1999. In 2004, she earned a J.D. degree from Arizona State University College of Law and started working as a criminal defense lawyer. In 2012, she earned a Ph.D. in justice studies from Arizona State and in 2018, she completed an online M.B.A. from the W. P. Carey School of Business.
Career
In 2003, Sinema became an adjunct professor teaching master's-level policy and grant-writing classes at Arizona State University School of Social Work and an adjunct business law professor at Arizona Summit Law School, formerly known as Phoenix School of Law. Sinema began her political career in the Arizona Green Party before joining the Arizona Democratic Party in 2004, and called herself a "Prada socialist".In 2000, Sinema worked on Ralph Nader's presidential campaign. In 2001 and 2002, she ran for local elected offices as an independent and lost. In 2002, The Arizona Republic published a letter from Sinema criticizing capitalism. She wrote: "Until the average American realizes that capitalism damages her livelihood while augmenting the livelihoods of the wealthy, the Almighty Dollar will continue to rule." In 2003, she protested Joe Lieberman's unsuccessful 2004 presidential bid, telling the Hartford Courant: "He's a shame to Democrats. I don't even know why he's running. He seems to want to get Republicans voting for him – what kind of strategy is that?"
While in the Green Party, Sinema was its local spokesperson, working to repeal the death penalty and organizing antiwar protests. She had organized 15 antiwar rallies by the time the Iraq War began. She also opposed the war in Afghanistan. During a February 15, 2003, protest in Patriots Square Park in Phoenix, a group led by Sinema distributed flyers portraying a U.S. service member as a skeleton "inflicting 'U.S. terror' in Iraq and the Middle East".
In a 2003 opinion piece, Sinema wrote that presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush were "the real Saddam and Osama lovers". When asked on a local radio show whether she would oppose someone joining the Taliban and fighting on its behalf, Sinema responded: "Fine... I don't care if you want to do that, go ahead."
In a 2011 address to Netroots Nation, Sinema called Arizona the "meth lab of democracy", in contrast to the "laboratories of democracy" in other states.
In 2020, as a senator, Sinema became a summer intern in a two-week program at Three Sticks Winery in Sonoma, California, which is owned by Bill Price, the co-founder of private equity firm TPG Capital. Various transactions continued into 2021, as Price contributed $2,900 to Sinema's campaign. The campaign also reported "meeting expenses" with the winery, though Three Sticks made contradictory claims it was to purchase wine.
Career after elected office
In January 2025, Sinema joined Coinbase's Global Advisory Council to advocate for the cryptocurrency industry and help it coordinate with US lawmakers.In March 2025, Sinema joined the law and lobbying firm Hogan Lovells as a senior advisor.
In October 2025, Sinema made a failed attempt to lobby the city council of a Phoenix suburb to allow the development of an AI data center, and revealed her alignment with the Trump Administration in developing AI infrastructure. Earlier in the year she founded and became the co-chair of the AI Infrastructure Coalition.
Arizona State Legislature (2005–2012)
Elections
In 2002, Sinema first ran for the Arizona House of Representatives as an independent affiliated with the Arizona Green Party. She finished in last place in a five-candidate field, receiving 8 percent of the vote.Sinema joined the Democratic Party in 2004. That year, Sinema and David Lujan won the two seats for Arizona's 15th district, with 37 percent of the vote for Sinema and 34 percent for Lujan over incumbent representative Wally Straughn. Sinema was reelected three times with over 30 percent of the vote. In 2008, Sinema completed the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government program for senior executives in state and local government as a David Bohnett LGBTQ Victory Institute Leadership Fellow. In 2009 and 2010, Sinema was an assistant Minority Leader for the Democratic Caucus of the Arizona House of Representatives.
In 2010, Sinema was elected to the Arizona Senate, defeating Republican Bob Thomas, 63 to 37 percent.
Tenure
According to Elle, "her first public comment as an elected official came in 2005, after a Republican colleague's speech insulted LGBT people. 'We're simply people like everyone else who want and deserve respect', she passionately declared. Later, when reporters asked about her use of the first person, Sinema replied, 'Duh, I'm bisexual. In 2012, when running for U.S. House, Sinema said she did not remember disclosing her sexual orientation in 2005 and declined to discuss the significance of being the first openly bisexual member of the House.In 2006, Sinema told a radio host that she was "the most liberal member of the Arizona State Legislature". Also in 2006, she sponsored a bill urging the adoption of the DREAM Act, and co-chaired Arizona Together, the statewide campaign that defeated Proposition 107, which would have banned the recognition of same-sex marriage and civil unions in Arizona. In 2008, a similar referendum, Proposition 102, passed.
In 2006, Sinema was asked about "new feminism", and responded: "These women who act like staying at home, leeching off their husbands or boyfriends, and just cashing the checks is some sort of feminism because they're choosing to live that life. That's bullshit. I mean, what the fuck are we really talking about here?" After facing criticism, Sinema apologized and said the interview format was intended to be a "lighthearted spoof", adding: "I was raised by a stay-at-home mom. So she did a pretty good job with me."
Sinema campaigned against Proposition 107, a referendum to ban the recognition of same-sex marriage and civil unions in Arizona. In 2008, she led the campaign against Proposition 102, another referendum that proposed a ban on recognition of same-sex marriage in Arizona. Proposition 102 was approved with 56% of the vote in the general election on November 4, 2008. Sinema chaired a coalition called Protect Arizona's Freedom, which defeated Ward Connerly's goal to place an initiative on the state ballot that would eliminate racial-preference programs.
In June 2009, Sinema was one of 32 state legislators appointed by President Barack Obama to the White House Health Reform Task Force, which helped shape the Affordable Care Act. Due to her strong support of the bill, she was invited to attend the Obamacare bill signing at the White House in March 2010.
In 2010, Sinema sponsored a bill to give in-state tuition to veterans; it was held in committee and did not receive a vote. Also in 2010, Sinema was named one of Time magazine's "40 Under 40". The Center for Inquiry gave Sinema its Award for the Advancement of Science and Reason in Public Policy in 2011.