Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs addressed possible concerns about lower than requested funding in the spending deal signed by President Joe Biden last week.
Hobbs, as well as Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, welcomed the news of $650 million being allocated toward the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Shelter and Services Program, The Center Square reported. However, the trio first asked for $752 million to go toward the fund, as it ends up being distributed.
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Some Arizona leaders are breathing a sigh of relief as the federal government passed funding that will presumably go toward transporting migrants out of border communities or caring for them while there.
There was widespread concern about daily mass migrant street releases starting in April, as federal funding for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Shelter and Services Program was set to expire on April 1, The Center Square previously reported.
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Democratic Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego’s 2024 Senate campaign announced raising $1 million on Thursday since independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema announced her retirement.
Gallego and former Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake have been vying for Sinema’s seat while the senator weighed whether to seek a second term in the upper chamber. In the 24 hours since Sinema declined to run on Tuesday, Gallego attracted nearly 24,000 donations, making it the campaign’s “most prolific fundraising day,” according to a press release obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Former GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake is leading both Representative Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03) and Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) in the 2024 Arizona U.S. Senate race, according to a new telephone and online survey conducted by Rasmussen Reports and The Bull Moose Project.
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Mitch McConnell has to be finished as the caucus leader for the Republicans in the Senate. Now. He has to resign, and if he won’t, then that caucus needs to get together and force him out.
Now. Not next week, not next month, not after this election cycle. Now.
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Lawmakers from both parties in Congress are vocalizing opposition to a proposed Veterans Affairs cut to reimbursement rates for ambulance services set to take effect in February.
The move is so the department can avoid overpaying for emergency medical transportation services, but critics warn it could lead to less access to that transportation to VA hospitals if the payment model is shifted.
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Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake received a key endorsement on Monday from Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), the chair of the Senate Republican Conference, after officially announcing her candidacy for the U.S. Senate last week. In a statement to The Arizona Sun Times, Lake said she looks forward to working with Barrasso and other Senate Republicans with whom she shares priorities.
Barrasso said “Kari Lake will shine brightly for Arizona,” according to a statement obtained by German-owned Politico. Barrasso called lake “a generational communicator who is giving voice to Arizona citizens,” and said she “is in this race to make Arizona and America stronger.”
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Kari Lake officially announced her entry into the U.S. Senate race in Arizona Tuesday evening at Jetset Magazine in Scottsdale. Incumbent Kyrsten Sinema, now an independent, is expected to run again, and Representative Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03) appears to have the Democratic primary locked up. Lake will face Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb in the Republican primary. Over a thousand showed up for the event, completely filling the area outside the business. Donald Trump appeared by video to endorse Lake.
Abe Hamadeh, who is still challenging his 280-vote loss to Democrat Kris Mayes in the attorney general’s race, gave a brief speech first. He slammed the politicians concerned more about their “decadent, self-serving cocktail parties,” and in a reference to his previous military experience, said he was ready to be “down in the trenches” with Lake and the campaign.
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Republican Kari Lake is reportedly going to announce her run for United States Senate in Arizona on Oct. 10, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Shortly after the report, a media advisory was sent out from Lake’s team saying the former gubernatorial nominee is “expected to make an announcement about her future alongside thousands of Arizonans” with a rally in the Phoenix area.
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According to The Wall Street Journal, Blake Masters is about to announce a run for the U.S. Senate, potentially as soon as next week. Masters lost the Arizona senate race last year to incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Kelly and will join a Republican primary field that includes Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb. Kari Lake is expected to announce her run in October. Incumbent Kyrsten Sinema, who switched her party registration from Democrat to Independent and is now seen as vulnerable, has not announced whether she is running for re-election. State Representative Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03) is widely expected to obtain the Democratic nomination, challenging her from the Left.
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In the near future, visitors to Grand Canyon National Park could be transported around in a new electric bus.
The national park has been provided a $27 million grant to replace the current buses at the parks with ones that are “battery electric” and “compressed natural gas,” according to a press release from Arizona Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly. The funding came from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s Nationally Significant Federal Lands and Tribal Projects Program. The act from 2021, also dubbed the bipartisan infrastructure law, has a total price tag of $1.2 trillion.
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Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb (R) officially announced Tuesday that he is entering the campaign trail for U.S. Senate, aiming to take the seat of Arizona’s Independent Senator, Kyrsten Sinema. To get that seat, Lamb must overcome political rivals on both sides of the aisle, including a potential bid from Republican Kari Lake.
“The idea of Kari Lake in the US Senate is the worst nightmare of the crooked political machine — the same machine she has vowed to destroy. If the People of Arizona call on Kari to run for Senate, despite the wishes of the ruling class, she will. And if Kari runs, she will win,” said Alex Nicoll, spokesperson for Lake, in an email to The Arizona Sun Times.
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Rumors have been swirling that Kari Lake is seriously considering running for the U.S. Senate, challenging Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, and during an interview with Turning Point USA President Charlie Kirk she finally confirmed the suspicion as accurate. However, she emphasized that she will fully litigate the results of the gubernatorial election first.
During the interview earlier this month, Lake responded when asked if she was going to run for the seat, “Yes, I am entertaining it. I mean my number one priority is our court case, and I have full confidence in our court case and I hope we will get a judge to do the right thing.”
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A new report from The Intercept_ shows that Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I) founded a consulting firm known as Forza Consulting, LLC (FCLLC) in partnership with former State Rep. Chad Campell (D-Phoenix), who has supported payday lending interests in the past.
According to the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC), the FCLLC was formed in September 2007, with Sinema and former State Rep. David Lujan (D-Phoenix) listed as the Managers. Campbell was listed as a member, and the company is still active, according to the ACC.
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Over a dozen activists groups have asked for an ethics probe into allegations Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is using her staff for personal errands other tasks outside of their official duties.
The request was filed Thursday with the Senate Ethics Committee, and some of the groups are from Sinema’s home state of Arizona, according to The Hill newspaper.
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Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed the top political strategist in the nation, Ward Baker in studio to give his analysis on the 2024 senate race and why it’s important.
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Following the official party switch from Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I), a recent Public Policy Polling (PPP) found that she appears to be sinking against other potential candidates for the 2024 senate race.
The poll found that between three hypothetical candidates, Kari Lake for Republicans, Rep. Ruben Gallego for Democrats, and Kyrsten Sinema as an independent, Sinema would find herself last.
“Fresh new Arizona numbers! In a three way race Kyrsten Sinema would get just 13% to 41% for Kari Lake and 40% for Ruben Gallego,” according to PPP.
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Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson (R) joined with his colleagues Senators Rick Scott (R-FL), Mike Lee (R-UT), Mike Braun (R-IN), and Rand Paul (R-KY) to oppose the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill and argue for an amendment that would eliminate all earmarks.
“Thousands of individual projects here, both Democrat and Republican,” Johnson said Tuesday during a press conference
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Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona refused to say whether she’d endorse a potential bid from President Joe Biden to run in 2024 during a Friday CNN interview.
“Folks know this about me, I don’t typically talk much about partisan politics and I don’t talk much about elections,” Sinema told CNN host Jake Tapper when asked if she would back Biden’s bid for a second term.
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Democratic Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema on Thursday announced that she would support the $740 billion budget reconciliation package negotiated between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.
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Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, official guest host Aaron Gulbransen welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary.
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U.S. Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. and Joe Manchin, D-W.V., both told news outlets Thursday they would not go along with President Joe Biden’s request that Congress remove the Senate filibuster to “codify Roe v. Wade.”
At a news conference in Spain Thursday during Biden’s last day of an overseas trip, Biden called on Congress to codify abortion protections in response to the Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, but before his plane landed in the U.S. later that day, the two Democratic senators had already stopped his plan dead in its tracks.
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In the U.S. Senate, some Republican senators appear open to signing off on Democrat-proposed efforts to increase gun control restrictions in the wake of several recent mass shootings.
Politico reports that the negotiations are being led on the Republican side by Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas). Cornyn has already briefed Republican leadership on what he has discussed with other senators over last week’s recess, and recently held a meeting with Democrats Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) to move talks forward.
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Moderate Senate Democrats joined Senate Republicans on Thursday in an effort to block President Joe Biden from lifting Title 42, a measure enacted during the pandemic that allows for the quick expulsion of migrants.
The bipartisan group of lawmakers proposed legislation that would halt the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from ending the policy, which the agency announced would cease on May 23, without an adequate plan in place.
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While many leading Democrats, including both of Arizona’s U.S. Senators, Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema, are upset with the Biden administration’s decision to end the Title 42 COVID-19 restrictions on U.S. borders, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs praised the decision. The Title 42 order, issued by the Centers for Disease Control in March 2020 under the Trump administration, has been used by Customs and Border Protection to prevent 1.7 million migrants from entering the country. They are either sent back to Mexico or on flights to other countries.
When asked by 3TV about the change and how it would affect border security, Hobbs said, “Title 42 should not be a substitute for that. As governor, I will work to, with the federal government, make sure that Arizonans are secure, they need to put more resources and securing the border. We need more resources to address the influx of migrants coming to the border.”
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Three Democratic senators joined Republicans on Wednesday to kill the nomination of David Weil to head the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, Politico reported.
In a final vote of 47-53, the Senate chose not to move forward with considering Weil’s nomination after intense criticism from Republicans over his tenure in the Obama administration, Politico reported. Arizona Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, along with West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, were the only Democrats to vote against Weil.
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On Thursday, Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) introduced the Chance to Compete Act, which would require federal agencies to focus hiring practices on the skills job seekers possess rather than whether and where they earned a college degree, according to a press release by Hagerty’s office.
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A new Arizona Public Opinion Pulse (AZPOP) poll conducted by OH Predictive Insights (OHPI) demonstrated that Senator Mark Kelly is becoming increasingly unpopular in Arizona.
According to the survey, a larger portion of the state’s residents view Kelly in a unfavorable manner than a favorable one.
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Senate Commerce Republicans are whipping opposition to the nomination of Gigi Sohn, one of President Joe Biden’s picks for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Biden nominated Sohn, former FCC counsel under Tom Wheeler and Ford Foundation alum, to an empty spot on the commission in late October, along with current acting Chair Jessica Rosenworcel to the permanent position.
While Republicans have been quiet in their response to the nomination of Rosenworcel, many are pointing to Sohn’s public statements on conservatives as reasons to oppose her confirmation.
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West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin came out against his party’s plan to tax billionaires in order to finance their social-spending package just hours after it was first released.
“I don’t like it. I don’t like the connotation that we’re targeting different people,” Manchin told reporters Tuesday morning, describing billionaires as people who “contributed to society and create a lot of jobs and a lot of money and give a lot to philanthropic pursuits.”
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Five members of Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s Veterans Advisory Council resigned this week due to her ongoing opposition to several facets of her party’s $3.5 trillion social spending and climate change bill.
In a letter released publicly Thursday, the advisers criticized the Arizona senator for refusing to get completely behind President Biden’s multi-trillion dollar Build Back Better agenda. They also chastised her for consistently opposing the abolition of the filibuster, which would effectively allow Senate Democrats to pass measures without support from chamber Republicans.
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Radical far-left activists publicly announced their plans to continue harassing Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) over her opposition to the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, this time with plans to follow her around at the Boston Marathon, Fox News reports.
The Green New Deal Network, an alliance of 15 far-left groups, issued a press release declaring their intent to follow and harass Sinema at the annual event on Monday, in an act known in politics as “bird-dogging.” The pressure from radical activists stems from Sinema’s refusal to support the “Build Back Better Bill,” an effort to shove through many far-left agenda items through the legislative process known as reconciliation; reconciliation, which is often reserved exclusively for budgetary matters, cannot be filibustered and thus only requires a narrow majority of 51 votes in order to pass.
Sinema, along with Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), has repeatedly refused to support a bill that costs as much as $3.5 trillion, instead advocating for a reduction in the overall cost.
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Arizona State Treasurer Kimberly Yee sent a letter to Arizona’s Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly urging them not to vote for legislation that would allow the IRS to monitor Americans’ bank accounts for transactions of $600 or more in withdrawals and deposits. The proposal is part of the Biden administration’s $3.5 trillion American Families Plan, the so-called “human infrastructure” bill. Scott Earl, the CEO & President of Mountain West Credit Union Association, also signed the letter, representing multiple credit unions.
Yee, who is running for governor of Arizona, said, “As it stands now, this proposal would threaten the financial security of more than 100 million Americans from all demographics. If it passes, the government will conduct one of the largest data mining exercises in American history, risking the security of the banking system.”
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The Arizona Democratic Party (ADP) is putting pressure on Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) in order to coerce her into opposing the Senate filibuster, voting for President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion “human infrastructure” bill, and supporting multiple voting related bills. They issued a resolution which threatens to give her a vote of no confidence, censure her, and withdraw support of her reelection if she fails to comply by the next state committee meeting in January 2022.
The resolution states in part:
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED – that the Arizona Democratic Party will closely watch Senator Sinema’s votes in the coming weeks and if Senator Sinema, does not vote in favor of Filibuster reform to change the Senate rules in order to allow the passage of The For The People Act – voting rights bill, the John Lewis Voting Rights Bill, or other urgent legislation, for example the PRO ACT, that has already passed by the House or if she votes against the Senate Reconciliation Budget Bill, also referred to as the Human Infrastructure Package or the American Families Plan supported by President Biden and the vast majority of Democrats in both the House and the Senate, or if she continues to delay, disrupt, or votes to gut the Reconciliation Package of its necessary funding, then the Arizona Democratic Party State Committee will go officially on record and will give Senator Sinema a vote of NO CONFIDENCE.
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President Joe Biden is taking fire for comments he made about his $3.5 trillion legislation just as the bill faces a deeply split Congress.
Biden made headlines for claiming the bill would cost “zero dollars,” despite media reports and members of both parties commonly naming the bill’s cost at $3.5 trillion for the last several months.
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The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) placed warning labels on the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and other historical documents, warning viewers that “some of the materials presented here may reflect outdated, biased, offensive, and possibly violent views and opinions.” The Arizona Sun Times requested comment from Arizona’s Democratic Senators Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema, asking if they approved of the decision, and only received auto replies. The warning about “harmful language” can be clearly seen at the top of the National Archives site. The new FAQ about the warning says harmful or difficult content includes “racist, sexist, ableist, misogynistic/misogynoir, and xenophobic opinions and attitudes” and material that is “discriminatory towards or exclude diverse views on sexuality, gender, religion, and more.” It says it includes “language that was accepted at the time.” The FAQ reassures viewers that archivists are not only “informing users about the presence and origin of harmful content,” but “evaluating existing processes for exclusionary practices or institutional bias that prioritize one culture and/or group over another” and “making an institutional commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.” The FAQ explains, “In the past, the National Archives has not had standards or policies to help archivists avoid…
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Now that a 10-year ban on Congressional earmarks has ended, all seven Democrats in Arizona’s congressional delegation are requesting them. None of the four Republican members are. Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ-07) wants to beautify light poles and several of the members want to expand public transit. Many of them are getting their requests approved as part of the $2.1 trillion infrastructure bill, which is expected to pass into law soon.
Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ-06) told The Arizona Sun Times Friday that the earmarks aren’t necessary, since they are for the types of projects local and state governments generally cover.
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As U.S. Senate leaders expect to pass a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill Tuesday morning, both of Tennessee’s senators, Marsha Blackburn (R) and Bill Hagerty (R) are vehemently opposing the legislation, alarmed by its potential to worsen the national debt.
Senate Democrats have expressed their intention to use a process called reconciliation to avoid any possible filibuster, thus allowing themselves expand the measure to encompass $3.5 trillion in federal spending.
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by Shelby Talcott Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is aiming to implement a program at the U.S.-Mexico border that would speed up the removal of migrants without valid asylum claims. The Arizona Democrat joined eight other senators in signing a letter Wednesday to acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, The Arizona Republic reported. The letter detailed how the pilot program, which is called “Operation Safe Return,” would allow for some migrants to be deported within 15 days, according to the letter. “This pilot program would apply to families who aren’t claiming ‘credible fear,’ which of course is the first threshold in seeking asylum,” Sinema told The Arizona Republic. “If someone says, ‘I left my country because I can’t make a living,’ [or] ‘It’s hard to take care of my family’ — that’s what we call an economic migrant.” Border Patrol would be given one to three days for “detailed, fair and accurate interviews” with migrant families. If the families are fearful of returning to their home countries, they would be deported, the newspaper reported. If a family is fearful, the next step would be for asylum officers to conduct a credible-fear interview. The officers would have nine days after the family…
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by Jason Hopkins Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema on Wednesday echoed the White House in calling for immigration enforcement to be aided with additional resources and staff. Arizonans bear the brunt of Washington’s failure to address our broken immigration system. We must secure the border with a comprehensive, smart, bipartisan approach – we’re calling on @DHSgov to send additional resources and staff to AZ ports. pic.twitter.com/qZGq3LgLmF — Kyrsten Sinema (@SenatorSinema) April 17, 2019 “Arizonans bear the brunt of Washington’s failure to address our broken immigration system. We must secure the border with a comprehensive, smart, bipartisan approach – we’re calling on [the Department of Homeland Security] to send additional resources and staff to AZ ports,” the first-term senator tweeted Wednesday. Sinema’s call for better border security was a far cry from what many of her colleagues in the Senate are demanding. Nineteen Senate Democrats, including every Democratic presidential candidate in the upper chamber of Congress, sent a letter to appropriation leaders demanding a reduction in funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. The group of Democrats made four specific requests of the appropriations committee: Less funding for beds in immigration detention centers,…
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