Last Week This Morning: Sinema’s switch

Sinema switches party affiliation. Kyrsten Sinema is no longer registered as a Democrat, officially changing her party registration to Independent. Of course, the idea that Sinema is actually “independent” is laughable – it’s clear she’s beholden to the corporate interests that have poured millions into her campaign in return for her obstruction of priorities popular with voters. Maybe Sinema got the message that she’s unlikely to survive a Democratic primary, though she’s only polling at only 20% favorability among Arizona voters. She announced the switch in a ridiculous and dishonest op-edin the Arizona Republic, audaciously claiming that she represents “all Arizonans” while neglecting to hold a single public town hall during her term.

Brittney Griner freed. After 294 days, Brittney Griner is finally free. Much credit is due to those who shared Brittney’s story and refused to let her be forgotten – we wish her and her family all the best. It’s also important to note that the U.S. incarcerates black women at the highest rate of anywhere in the world, and it’s time for elected officials to prioritize ending mass incarceration at home.

Ducey fails Arizona students. As one of his final moves in office, Ducey is going back on his promise to call a special session of the legislature in order to raise an arbitrary school funding cap. If the cap is not raised, public schools may have to cut more than a billion dollars from their budgets, despite that funding being already allocated to them. Now, he’s holding the special session hostage unless lawmakers agree to take up other items in his agenda, despite having the supermajority necessary to raise the spending limit if a special session were called. Ducey has spent his term gutting Arizona’s education, and recently pushed a universal voucher program that will drain hundreds of millions away from public schools.

Arizonans need more outrage. Check out our TikTok published just before the Sinema news dropped, where we respond to her comments criticizing our outrage over the overturn of Roe v. Wade.