FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 12, 2021
Contact: Prudence Robertson, probertson@sbalist.org (240) 672-2828
Washington, D.C. – The Election Transparency Initiative (ETI) today launched a three-week, six-figure digital and grassroots campaign in Arizona calling on Senator Kyrsten Sinema to keep her promise to protect the 60-vote legislative “filibuster” and to reject partisan pressure to eliminate or weaken the long-standing Senate rule.
For almost 200 years, the U.S. Senate’s filibuster rule has been in place to ensure bipartisanship and consensus-driven decision making. Under this rule, legislation in the Senate can only advance with the bipartisan support of 60 total Senators.
Echoing the bipartisan pledge signed by the late senator John McCain in 2017 calling for preservation of the time-honored rule, Senator Sinema has consistently pledged to uphold the 60-vote filibuster as Democrats attempt to force their most contentious legislative priorities into law by destroying bipartisanship in the Senate, including a federal takeover of state elections with only 51 Democrat votes instead of the normal 60 votes. Senator Sinema has maintained that John McCain is her “personal hero” who is “lighting the way” for her, and takes her legacy in the seat that the late senator once held very seriously.
“It’s no secret that I oppose eliminating the Senate’s 60-vote threshold. I held the same view during three terms in the U.S. House and said the same after I was elected to the Senate in 2018. If anyone expected me to reverse my position because my party now controls the Senate, they should know that my approach to legislating in Congress is the same whether in the minority or majority,” Sinema wrote in The Washington Post.
“They will not get my vote” to eliminate the Senate’s 60-vote requirement, Sinema told POLITICO. “In fact, whether I’m in the majority or the minority I would always vote to reinstate the protections for the minority. … It is the right thing for the country.”
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National Chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli issued the following statement:
“While we don’t always see eye-to-eye with Senator Sinema, standing up for the Senate’s rule designed to ensure bipartisanship and prevent the majority party from pushing aside the minority party to ram through controversial legislation isn’t a Republican or Democrat issue—it’s just common sense. In the face of intense partisan pressure to cave on her promise, Sinema should be applauded for her principled commitment to the time-honored system of consensus-driven decision-making in the Senate.
“If she does not protect the filibuster from any attempt to eliminate or weaken it, the reality is she will violate her own statements about honoring John McCain’s legacy and become just another hypocritical politician who can’t be trusted to keep their word.”
In 2017, Senator McCain joined in signing a bipartisan letter of 61 senators urging preservation the 60-vote threshold for legislation. The letter, which was also signed by senators Joe Manchin (D-WV), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Angus King (I-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), and Jon Tester (D-MT), expressed their shared opposition to “any effort to curtail the existing rights and prerogatives of Senators to engage in full, robust, and extended debate as we consider legislation before this body in the future.”
According to a McLaughlin poll, nearly 6-in-10 likely general election voters in Arizona oppose Democrats ending the filibuster.
Democrats seek to abolish the filibuster to force a federal takeover of state elections into law, through H.R. 1, H.R. 4, S. 1, S. 4, S.2039, and S. 2747, without the bipartisan support required by the filibuster rule. The takeover legislation would effectively abolish voter I.D. protections supported by 81% of American voters, force states to register illegal aliens to vote, erode election safeguards enacted by many states—making it nearly impossible to detect fraud—while mandating unsecure and unverifiable absentee voting practices, overriding voter roll maintenance laws, and dramatically altering First Amendment protections by imposing unnecessary and unworkable regulatory standards.
30-SECOND DIGITAL SCRIPT:
Congress is broken, and extreme politicians want to make it worse by abolishing the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster rule.
Senator John McCain knew better, and pledged preservation of the filibuster to ensure bipartisan cooperation.
Thankfully, Senator Kyrsten Sinema has promised to honor McCain’s legacy and protect the filibuster.
But if Sinema votes to eliminate or weaken the filibuster, she would be just another hypocritical politician.
Tell Senator Sinema: honor McCain’s legacy and protect the Senate filibuster.
Polling shows the majority of U.S. voters, including Black and Hispanic as well as urban and independent voters, overwhelmingly support voter I.D. protections and want it to be easy to vote and hard to cheat.
The Election Transparency Initiative, a partnership between American Principles Project (APP) and the national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List), was organized to combat H.R. 1 and H.R. 4 and advocate for state-based election reforms that voters can trust.
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