June 18, 2021: ‘I want to be the next John McCain’

Kyrsten Sinema's advisers heard it constantly from her during her 2018 campaign for Senate: “I want to be the next John McCain.”

After she won, Sinema called the late senator a “legend” and “my personal hero.” This year, when she voted against a minimum wage hike, she rankled the left by mimicking McCain’s iconic thumbs-down that tanked the GOP’s effort to kill Obamacare.

Now Sinema’s commanding the spotlight not only as a rare swing vote in a hyperpartisan Congress but as a lead negotiator on an infrastructure deal that could determine the success of President Joe Biden's first term. If she pulls it off, she will establish herself, like McCain, as a legislative force inside the Senate.

 Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio. 
Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.