Democratic Senate candidate Abby Finkenauer calls Kyrsten Sinema 'a sellout'

She's running for office thousands of miles away from Arizona, but that's not stopping Abby Finkenauer from calling out one of the state's Democratic senators.

Finkenauer, a former congresswoman and Democratic candidate for Senate in Iowa, called Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) a "sellout" on Thursday, in response to Sinema declaring on the Senate floor that she won't support changing filibuster rules in order to pass voting rights legislation.

While Democrats "technically" have control of the Senate, Finkenauer said in a Twitter video, "we've got a sellout in Kyrsten Sinema, who is there for what reason I don't know, but she refuses to actually do anything that works for working families like the one that I grew up in. I don't know if she forgot where she came from or who she's there to fight for, but it's about dang time that we expand the Democratic majority."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Finkenauer, a moderate who aims to unseat Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) in November, said in a follow-up tweet that if she goes to the Senate, "I'll vote for filibuster reform to pass voting rights legislation, and deliver on progress for working families that Republicans like Sen. Grassley are blocking." Axios notes that in addition to Finkenauer, several Democrats running for the Senate are now promising to back filibuster changes, including Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.). Demings told supporters in a campaign email sent Tuesday she will be "the 50th vote Democrats need to end the filibuster and pass voting rights protections."

While Finkenauer may not be a fan of Sinema's, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is — he applauded Sinema's Thursday speech, telling reporters, "It was extraordinarily important and she has, as a conspicuous act of political courage, saved the Senate as an institution."