Kyrsten Sinema Is Still Paying Tulsi Gabbard's Sister a Fortune for Security
The revelation that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) had spent over $500,000 in campaign funds to a single security contractor—first reported by The Daily Beast in February—prompted campaign finance watchdogs to warn the arrangement raised “red flags” that Sinema should publicly explain.
The Arizona senator never responded to questions about her unusually high outlays to TOA Group, an LLC solely owned by Vrindavan Bellord, the sister of her former ally and colleague Tulsi Gabbard. But Sinema’s latest federal campaign finance filing offers a clear answer to the question of whether the senator has reconsidered her security arrangement or her obligation to be more transparent about it.
In the second quarter of 2023, the Sinema campaign’s payments to Bellord’s company jumped to $114,000—more than three times what it had paid her in the first quarter of the year, and roughly one-fifth of all campaign dollars Sinema spent in the second quarter.