Kyrsten Sinema's campaign spending report includes a Saudi hotel and Taylor Swift merch
In the final months before Democratic-turned-independent former Sen.
In the final months before Democratic-turned-independent former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema retired, her campaign organization spent big in the desert — not just the desert of Arizona, the state she represented in Congress for more than a decade, but in Saudi Arabia.
Of the almost $700,000 Sinema’s campaign reported spending in the final three months of 2024, about one-tenth was spent on “lodging,” including more than $20,000 at the swanky Le Méridien in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Another $756 went to a limited liability company linked to Marriott operating in the country, according to her campaign finance filing. The filing shows Sinema's campaign spent $4,000 more on car services to two foreign companies, one in London and one in Paris, although it’s unclear where the services were incurred.
Sinema’s campaign also spent almost $19,000 at the Edition Hotel in New York City, mostly around Election Day, according to the filing, as well as thousands more at other luxury hotels in the mountain resort towns of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Park City, Utah; the St. Regis in San Francisco; the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas; and a Ritz-Carlton without a location specified.
Her campaign filing also showed more than $15,000 spent on airfare over that period, without providing more information about the destinations. It's unclear whether Sinema took the trips associated with the spending or whether someone else in her political operation did.
The hotel and airline payments weren't Sinema’s largest expenditure category: That was security spending, during a time when politicians have faced a steady stream of threats. New data U.S. Capitol Police released Monday found an increase in statements and threats against members of Congress and their families over the last year, and Sinema's committee reported spending about $140,000 on security services (including travel), all paid to a security firm based in Sinema’s Arizona. She spent $81,000 more on travel expense reimbursements to the same firm.
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