On Jan. 22, former U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat-turned-Independent from Arizona, spoke at American University about her career accolades, political friendships and future ambitions.
The event, hosted by the Kennedy Political Union and the Sine Institute of Policy and Politics, included Sinema’s insights into her career as a politician and beyond.
Sinema ran for office as a Democrat in 2013, despite describing herself as an Independent today.
“I am not really a joiner,” Sinema said. “When I ran for the Senate, I ran for the first time without a party and lost. I ran again with a party and came in first.”
But Sinema said she was not always a fan of politics. She grew up in a culturally and politically conservative household, but her family was never directly involved in politics.
Instead, Sinema’s political journey began in social work. After experiencing homelessness during her childhood, she knew she wanted to help others.
Working at an elementary school with a large immigrant population and looming budget cuts, Sinema sought out changes at the Arizona State Legislature.
“I would go down with my facts, information and data, and I would lose all day long,” she said.
In order to get the Arizona State Legislature to work with her, Sinema said she took a new approach, using her “social worker lens.” This continued when she decided to run for office.
“The key is relationships,” Sinema said. “I went into Congress thinking I would make friends with everybody, and I did. It didn’t matter if we had lots of similarities or differences, what mattered was whether we had a connection.”
Sinema was the first woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2013 as a Democrat and transitioned to being an Independent in 2022. Prior to her federal work, Sinema was elected to the Arizona State Senate from 2011-2012.
No stranger to controversy, Sinema described one of her proudest political moments as the day she voted against changing rules of the filibuster in 2022. Just three hours before the vote, the senator learned of her grandfather’s passing.
Despite her grief, Sinema took to the Senate floor to join Republicans for a vote to keep the filibuster, which allows lawmakers to delay or block a vote on a bill with endless speechmaking.
“I am so so glad we protected the filibuster,” Sinema said.
In Congress, Sinema said she cultivated relationships with members of various parties. She said making friends and working with people who hold different beliefs than her was the key to success.
“If you meet someone and you agree with them 100 percent politically, they are lying to you, or they are not thinking for themselves,” Sinema said.
She continued to speak about the importance of being yourself, and allowing one's political beliefs to evolve over time.
Will Leovy, a freshman in School of Public Affairs , said that he has followed Sinema’s politics for quite some time, and that her accomplishments, along with her current controversy regarding an affair lawsuit, are what inclined him to come to the event.
A week before the event, Sinema was handed a lawsuit claiming she was having an affair with her body guard. The affair was not mentioned by the moderator.
“I was very interested to see what she was like in person,” Leovy said. “She has been a pretty big name in politics for the last half-decade, and I have been following her for a long time.”
The senator explained that once she entered Congress and later became the representative for Arizona’s 9th district, she wanted to focus on issues specific to her state, such as public transportation.
She also has made fostering political discourse a point of emphasis in her work, particularly amid escalating partisanship.
“This is my favorite thing to talk about,” Sinema said. “I had no regrets about the work that I did, what I accomplished, the branches that I made,” Sinema said.
Sinema is currently working in the private sector, engaging in pro-AI lobbying, though she does not identify as a lobbyist.
Along with her AI work at Hogan Lovells, Sinema teaches at University of Arizona and is president and CEO of The Arizona Business Roundtable, where she works with CEOs across Arizona to ensure economic and security success in the future.
“I appreciate how focused she is on results even if they differ on what she was elected on,” Leovy said.
Jasiah Bowie, a freshman in SPA, agreed.
“I think it was a very valuable perspective,” Bowie said. “I wish we got some more real, and stronger questions though, but I still think it was a valuable experience.”
Sinema ended the talk saying she has no regrets from being herself throughout her political career, and urging students to continue being politically alert.
This article was edited by Natalie Hausmann, Payton Anderson and Walker Whalen. Copy editing done by Avery Grossman, Arin Burrell, Paige Caron and Nicole Kariuki. Fact-checking done by Andrew Kummeth.
