The staffers of Authentic, a Democrat consulting firm that has reportedly been paid almost half a million dollars to do digital work for Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema since 2020, have started to complain about working for the senator.
The firm’s staff started to express their “shock and agitation” as to why their company that “professes fidelity to a set of progressive values” has worked with Sinema, as she consistently rejects key components of the Democrat party’s far-left agenda, according to a recent report from Politico.
According to internal union messages the publication reviewed, one of the firm’s staffers said, “I am doing the devils work,” while another staffer said, “I feel sick about it tbh.”
Politico wrote that, a person who knows about the original discussion said that the staffers’ disagreement with Sinema being a client started after the senator did her infamous thumbs down vote against raising the minimum wage to $15-an-hour.
Politico added:
Faced with pushback from employees, management at Authentic, one of the Democratic Party’s more prominent firms, defended itself by saying their work for Sinema was important for maintaining a Democratic Senate majority, according to those messages. But the situation grew dire enough that employees, who are unionized, were told they could be removed from the Sinema account if they felt uncomfortable with it, per the union’s contract.
…The revolt inside Authentic underscores the degree to which Sinema has found herself in the crosshairs of her own party during the Biden years. The Arizona Democrat has rankled some of the biggest powers in Democratic circles with her refusal to back key components of the president’s agenda, most recently a reform to Senate rules to allow elections reform legislation to pass by a simple majority vote. Top women’s groups have suggested they might withdraw their support if her position remained the same. One-time donors have threatened to back a primary challenger. Even Sinema’s own digital firm has struggled with keeping her as a client.
…Leadership at Authentic has maintained that it would not end its work on behalf of the senator. At one point, Sinema’s team offered to meet with the firm’s CEO Mike Nellis along with three employees who worked on the account to discuss the senator’s vote. The employees declined the meeting. One said the question was not about whether the Senator was aligned with their values but about how the firm responds. Another said the situation was more about where the firm stands than about the Senator.
As the Senate came to Washingon in January, and the Democrats started their push to pass the voting rights legislation, one employee that Politico noted “expressed fears about being passed over for a promotion if they were to say no to working on Sinema’s account,” said, “What’s the point of us supporting a client who is the antithesis of what we claim to stand for?” The same staffer added, “I feel like we have clients who would consider leaving us if they realize we work for her….”
Taylor Billings, who is one of the organizing directors for the Authentic’s union, Campaign Workers Guild, said, “The Authentic Union views Sen. Sinema’s recent actions to block voting rights legislation as an affront to their company’s values, which they’re proud of and committed to upholding.”
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter.