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Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's office to potential fellows: you 'aren't working for Elizabeth Warren'
Robin Bravender, Kayla Epstein
5-6 minutes
- Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's staff stressed to potential fellows that she's a moderate.
- "They'd need to understand they aren't working for Elizabeth Warren," her staff told a fellowship program.
- The Arizona Democrat's moderate positions are getting renewed attention.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's staff wants to make sure new staffers know she's no progressive — and certainly not Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
Sinema's staff asked a fellowship program to make sure that candidates knew Sinema, an Arizona Democrat, was "very moderate, very centrist" and that "any Fellow who works in the office needs to be comfortable with that," according to an email obtained by Insider.
The email was sent to candidates vying for a Teach for America fellowship in Sinema's office on Capitol Hill from 2019 to 2020, according to a source who provided the email and requested anonymity to protect professional relationships.
The fellowship program relayed to candidates what it said was an "exact quote" from Sinema's staff: "They'd need to understand they aren't working for Elizabeth Warren."
If fellows weren't comfortable with Sinema's political positions, "there would be no hard feelings," the email said. "So let us know if you'd like to skip the senator from Arizona."
Some of Sinema's former staffers have been frustrated by her politics, as well as the working conditions in her Senate office, they
recently told Insider.
Email to candidates for a fellowship in Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's office.
Obtained by Insider
The email to potential fellows was sent by a staff member at Teach For America who works with its Capitol Hill fellows program, Teach for America spokeswoman Lindsay Kelly told Insider this week. None of the program's fellows wound up working for Sinema that year, nor have any Teach for America fellows worked for Sinema's office to date, Kelly said.
"It is common for us to prepare fellows for their interviews by providing them with information shared with us from the offices that they are interviewing with," Kelly said in an email.
Read more: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's former staffers detail a 'demoralizing' office environment where they were afraid to 'mess up in any way' while working for the Arizona Democrat
The yearlong fellowship program places Teach for America alumni in full-time, paid staff positions in congressional offices. Fellows earn $60,000 for the year and "gain incredible insights into the legislative process and experience in policy and politics at the national level,"
the program's website says.
Fellows have been placed in offices including those of Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Warren, as well as the GOP offices of Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ben Sasse of Nebraska.
Neither Sinema's office nor Warren's office responded to Insider's requests for comment for this story.
Sinema's moderate positions are getting more attention now that Democrats hold the
tie-breaking vote — and therefore, a bare-boned majority — in a US Senate composed of 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans.
She's seen as one of a few centrist Democrats on Capitol Hill with the power to make or break President Joe Biden's agenda. Sinema has enraged some on the left by
supporting the continued use of the Senate's filibuster, a procedure that requires 60 votes to advance most legislation and — for now — empowers the GOP to block top Democratic priorities.
"The filibuster compels moderation and helps protect the country from wild swings between opposing policy poles," Sinema wrote last month in an op-ed.
One former intern who had a positive experience working in Sinema's office said he developed a negative impression of her politics as his views grew more progressive during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Toward the end I felt a lot of ideological divergence toward Sinema herself," he said.
Her continued support of the filibuster and opposition to raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour rankled him, he said, given the struggles he saw Americans experiencing throughout 2020.
"I can say with confidence that she's my least favorite Arizona senator now," he said.
Another former Sinema staffer said he also disagrees "with a lot of her policies, but none of them surprise me." He added, "I think she has stayed super focused on what matters in Arizona."
There’s lots of ideas about determining the amount.
