Activists from Arizona attempted to target Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., at the Boston Marathon on Monday but the senator's broken foot prevented her participation, her office told Fox News.
The Arizona Working Families Party and the Sunrise Movement's Tempe chapter shared a photo of activists holding up signs urging Sinema to deliver "green jobs now," "care jobs now," and to "be brave, fight for us." They intended to urge her to support President Biden's $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, also called the Build Back Better bill.
"We're here at the #Boston Marathon with @SunriseTempe and others from AZ asking @SenatorSinema to stop running from her constituents and start listening!" the Arizona Working Families Party tweeted. #StopRunningSinema & pass the full Build Back Better plan NOW!"
The protest came after activists from the Green New Deal Network, a coalition of 15 organizations, announced that they planned on "bird-dogging" Sinema during the marathon, according to The Boston Globe.
Yet the Green New Deal Network told Fox News its activists had "no luck with a sighting of Sen. Sinema" at the marathon.
A spokesperson for the senator told Fox News that Sinema had to skip out on running the race.
"While Kyrsten qualified for and attended the race, she could not run because of her continued recovery from a broken foot," her office said in a statement.
Last week, activists approached Sinema at the airport and on an airplane, urging her to support the Build Back Better bill. Other activists even followed her from a classroom at Arizona State University, where she teaches, to a bathroom there. They continued hounding her while she was in the stall and later when she emerged to wash her hands.
TEAM BIDEN CLINGS TO RECONCILIATION BILL ZERO-COST CLAIM SHOT DOWN BY WASHINGTON POST FACT-CHECKERS
Sinema has expressed her opposition to the Build Back Better bill, which Democrats have often paired with a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. Sinema and her colleague Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., have balked at the $3.5 trillion sticker price, which The Wall Street Journal editorial board has insisted is a low estimate of the bill's true cost of $5 trillion. Biden and his advisers, meanwhile, have insisted that the cost is "zero" because they pledge to pay for the $3.5 trillion with tax increases on the wealthy and corporations.
Activists approaching Manchin's houseboat aboard kayaks also accosted him.
Biden addressed the confrontations against the senators last week, noting that neither senator has Secret Service protection.
"I don’t think they’re appropriate tactics, but it happens to everybody," Biden said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
"The only people it doesn’t happen to are the people who have Secret Service standing around them," Biden added. "So, it’s part of the process."
This story has been updated with statements from the Green New Deal Network and Sinema's office, reflecting that the senator did not run in the Boston Marathon.