Newly independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema may have found a trendy new way to raise campaign cash. And if you are looking for secondhand high-heels or maybe a used bike frame, Sinema might be able to give you a deal. The senator is not-so-secretly hawking several items on Facebook Marketplace, ranging from a $25 trucker hat to a $500 bicycle travel case, as per a reporter who confirmed a recent story first reported in Slate.
A Facebook account purported to be that of the senator’s has offloaded a treadmill for $600 and a road-bike frame for $3,500, among other items, Slate reported. So it is safe to say that Sinema’s side hustle has been somewhat lucrative.
But at first, Slate could not confirm the actual identity of an account belonging to “Kyrsten Sinema,” a five-star rated seller on Facebook Marketplace, an Arizona reporter said recently that it is indeed one that belongs to the independent lawmaker, per the New York Post.
A journalist with the AZ Mirror, Jim Small has been Facebook friends with Sinema “for some 15 or so years,” as he says, and he wrote that he can see “every piece of clothing and equipment” listed in the Slate story being sold by the senator.
Small wrote: “In all, she’s listed 84 items on Facebook Marketplace.” Small also said that he has covered Sinema since her time in the Arizona House of Representatives, which she was elected to in 2004.
But it does not appear that Sinema is trading off her job title to markup the price of the items she is selling, even though she could do so. Most of the items appeared to be “reasonably priced,” as Slate noted. It also does not appear that the items sold by Sinema come anywhere near the Senate’s earned outside income limit of $29,895, the news outlet reported.
A Slate reporter already tried out the whole process, purchasing a pair of heels Sinema listed for sale. The reporter messaged back and forth with the senator through Facebook and was directed to pick them up at the front desk of her Arizona apartment building.
So it does not appear that the former Democratic senator will personally hand you whatever you purchase, so do not get your hopes up if you were planning to order something from her Facebook page just so you could meet her.