Kyrsten Sinema Wants You To Know Shes Not A Progressive | HuffPost Latest News

PHOENIX Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema didnt have to think about her answer. She was holding a press conference focused on health care at the Crescent Ballroom, a music venue on the outskirts of this citys downtown, when an unsurprising question came.

Do you support Medicare for all?

I do not, Sinema responded quickly to the reporter, later giving the same answer to a question about whether she supported adding a public health insurance option to Obamacare.

Ive been laser-focused on supporting realistic proposals that help Arizonans get access to affordable coverage, she said. She went on to talk about her work with Republicans to delay a tax hike included in the Affordable Care Act and to increase the number of employees a small business must employ to 100 (instead of 15) before it is subject to the act.

Sinema is her partys nominee for U.S. Senate in this state. Its a former Republican bastion home to Barry Goldwater, the founder of the modern conservative movement that is slowly turning into a swing state. Shes in a tight race with GOP Rep. Martha McSally, one of the first American women to fly in combat, in a race Democrats must win to have a chance of taking back the U.S. Senate.

If the contest here has been about one thing, its health care. More than 1 million Arizonans have a pre-existing health condition, and Sinema and Democratic groups have relentlessly hammered McSally for her votes to repeal those protections in the Affordable Care Act. (McSally has responded by claiming to have led the fight to protect people with pre-existing conditions. She actually profanely encouraged other GOP members to vote for Obamacare repeal.)

But if the race has been about two things, the second thing is Sinemas past and ideology. National and state Republicans have relentlessly portrayed her as a far-left extremist, typically citing her work as an anti-war activist in the 2000s and early parts of her time in the Arizona State Legislature. Theyve noted she danced with witches (yes, witches) and wore a pink tutu at an anti-war rally. Theyve circulated videos of her calling Arizonas GOP-led legislature crazy. The attacks culminated when McSally ignored a question about climate change at a debate and instead accused Sinema of treason .

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