| Phoenix — Just one week after launching PrimarySinema.com, the new PAC effort has generated widespread media coverage including NBC News, The Week, Newsweek, MSNBC, the Washington Post, and more. The mission of the Primary Sinema project is to fund grassroots efforts in Arizona to hold U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema accountable and prepare to mount a viable primary challenge against her. PrimarySinema.com is a project of Change for Arizona 2024 PAC, which launched with a $400,000 initial investment from Way to Win. Press HighlightsMSNBC: Hallie Jackson Reports “Some of the people who have had enough are now laying the groundwork for a primary challenge potentially. One progressive organizer involved telling NBC News, “there is still time for the senator to change course.”  Full clip here. CBS News: Arizona progressives organize to fund primary challenger to Senator Kyrsten Sinema “We are really disappointed. Not only in the way she’s been acting and the lack of clarity she has provided on her positions, but also in how inaccessible she has been in the last year and probably even beyond that – not having meetings with groups here locally, not responding to advocates who just want to know her position on issues. We’re really concerned about her ability to actually represent us.”  Full clip here. Washington Post: The Trailer Newsletter Last week, there weren’t any organizations dedicated to defeating Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) in a 2024 primary. Now, there are three: A Primary Sinema PAC built by a major liberal donor collective, a “Run Ruben Run” campaign to draft Rep. Ruben Gallego (D) into the 2024 race and a CrowdPAC campaign with the arguably less catchy name “Either Sinema Votes to End the Filibuster OR We Fund a Primary Challenger.” … The other groups are made up of both local and national Sinema critics, from people who worked to elect her in 2018 to national donors and activists focused on the fate of the entire party. The California-based Way to Win donor group, which poured tens of millions of dollars into grass-roots groups and campaigns last year, is behind Primary Sinema. “The people of Arizona voted for Joe Biden and the Biden agenda,” Way to Win co-founder Leah Hunt-Hendrix told NBC News. Rolling Stone: Progressives Plot to Primary Kyrsten Sinema The anger and frustration with Sinema is now coalescing into something more serious: A plan to primary her right out of Congress — or at least to make her spend the next few years worried about rising discontent from the party base. And now, with the fate of Biden’s $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act still uncertain as negotiations grind on, the anger at Sinema is “boiling over,” says Tomas Robles, executive director of the grassroots group Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA). “What we’ve seen every year, every legislative session at the federal level, is her move more and more to the right in terms of votes, while at the same time getting better at completely alienating her voting bloc and her party and the progressive voters that voted for her.” National political groups are already fundraising for a primary challenger to Sinema even though she doesn’t stand for reelection until 2024. This week alone, at least two groups, Way to Win and Nuestro PAC, announced they were raising money to fund a “Primary Sinema” effort. Leah Hunt-Hendrix, the cofounder and vice president of Way to Win, a well-funded political group, says Sinema’s pro-corporate stances and refusal to reform the filibuster and swiftly pass new voting-rights protections was endangering her Democratic colleagues in the Senate. “There have to be consequences and she has to know that,” Hunt-Hendrix says… NBC News: Could Sen. Kyrsten Sinema face a primary? These progressives are trying to make it happen. A group of Arizona Democrats backed by a network of deep-pocketed donors is laying the groundwork for a primary challenge to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, organizers said. Sinema, a moderate Democrat who is up for re-election in 2024, is at the center of a standoff within the Democratic Party over the future of President Joe Biden’s infrastructure agenda, and she has faced strong criticism for holding up the package from more than the usual suspects on the disgruntled left. The new Primary Sinema PAC does not plan to support a particular primary challenger. Instead, it will fund local groups to pressure Sinema and help build the support and infrastructure for an eventual candidate. The Week: Kyrsten Sinema is already facing primary pressure in Arizona Primary Sinema PAC, a new PAC “backed by a network of deep-pocketed donors,” has begun “laying the groundwork” for a primary challenge to Sinema in 2024, reports NBC News. … There is still time for Senator Sinema to change course,” said Luis Avila, a veteran Arizona organizer supporting the Primary Sinema PAC. “But if she does not, there will be consequences for her betrayal of the people who elected her.” Daily Beast: The Left Is Done Pressuring Kyrsten Sinema. Now They Want a Primary. A new group that launched last week—unambiguously titled “Primary Sinema PAC”—is wasting no time getting into the fray, reporting its first two $10,000 ad buys Sunday evening. While the PAC would not disclose more information about the ads, the Facebook ad library shows the group has bought more than $7,000 in anti-Sinema posts since Sept. 30. The ads link out to the group’s ActBlue donation page. The ads paint Sinema as a major roadblock to Biden’s agenda and ask for donations to help build out a political Democratic operation to topple her, even though she isn’t up for re-election for three years. “It’s clear that Senator Sinema needs to be replaced by another Democrat,” one of the ads says. “We’ve just launched the Primary Sinema PAC. With your help, we are raising funds to build infrastructure with grassroots organizing groups in Arizona. That way, when a primary challenger comes along, they’ll have the infrastructure already built to win.” Newsweek: Kyrsten Sinema Could Face a Democratic Challenger After Arizona Group Launches New PAC Arizona activists are already working to replace Senator Kyrsten Sinema when she’s up for reelection in 2024. The Primary Sinema PAC launched Thursday will fund grass-roots efforts in Arizona to mount a viable challenger against the Democrat. The money will also go to organizations working to hold Sinema “accountable.” “It’s clear that Sen. Sinema is not listening to the people of Arizona,” Alex Gomez and Tomás Robles, co-executive directors of Living United for Change in Arizona, said in a statement. Arizona Agenda: The Daily Agenda: Sinema at the center of the world Today, activists announced a seemingly serious effort to raise money for a primary challenger via the aptly named Primary Sinema PAC, “a campaign that will fund grassroots efforts in Arizona to hold U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema accountable and prepare to mount a viable primary challenge against her.” The group cited a poll saying two-thirds of Democrats would support a primary challenger who promised to scrap the filibuster. The PAC says it has no candidate in mind, but will instead fund local groups, starting with LUCHA, that will keep up the pressure and lay the groundwork for a serious challenger to step in. The Hill: Arizona Democrats, activists eye potential primary challenge to Sinema over Biden agenda, filibuster Democratic leaders and activists in Arizona are mounting pressure campaigns against Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) amid a standoff over President Joe Biden’s agenda, threatening to back a primary challenge to her unless she gets on board with key Democratic legislative priorities. One such effort, Primary Sinema PAC, launched on Thursday, announcing that it would raise money to fund grassroots groups in Arizona that can “hold Sinema accountable” and “lay the foundation for a successful primary campaign when a strong challenger emerges.” “We fought tirelessly to elect Kyrsten Sinema in 2018,” said Alex Gomez and Tomas Robles, the co-executive directors of Living United for Change in Arizona, one of the groups slated to receive funding from Primary Sinema PAC. Roll Call: Democrats: Push to pressure Sinema won’t distract from Kelly’s 2022 Senate race Anger at Sinema’s role in the negotiations over the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package culminated last week in multiple efforts to support a primary challenger against her in 2024. Activists launched the Primary Sinema PAC, which Avila is advising. A spokesperson for the group said it is not backing a specific challenger, but rather raising money to support grassroots groups that are organizing against Sinema. The PAC’s announcement came with a statement of support from Living United for Change in Arizona, or LUCHA, a group that has helped organize Latino voters critical to Democrats’ recent success in Arizona, including Sinema’s victory in 2018 and Biden’s and Kelly’s wins last year. Twitter Highlights The news also made its rounds on Twitter where Tweets announcing the launch garnered thousands of retweets and likes.  https://twitter.com/aseitzwald/status/1443509139079143424  https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1443571693730082817  https://twitter.com/briantylercohen/status/1443633175654281218  https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1443600272064856065?s=20 https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1443509474120044547 |