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Purple-State Senator Rocks Wig At Work

Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema leaves the U.S. Capitol on Monday.
Saul Loeb
/
AFP via Getty Images
Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema leaves the U.S. Capitol on Monday.

Monday night's Met Gala in New York City may have been postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic, but that didn't stop a bold look from appearing on the red carpet. OK, well, it's actually bluecarpet.

During a unanimous vote on an agency's inspector general, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., took to the Senate floor while donning a face mask and a vibrant purple wig.

Sinema, whose locks are usually blonde, voted and seemed to identify herself by pointing to her new look, with an expression of, "Yeah, it's me. You knew that, right?"

Twitter theories abound on the new hairdo, from Star Wars #MayThe4thBeWithYou roots to musings that the Arizona senator was nodding to the "purpling" of her state's politics.

Sinema's office didn't return NPR's request for comment, but her staff told a local reporter that the $12.99 wig was simply meant to "set an example of social distancing from hair salons."

For Arizonans eager to return their roots to normal, fear not: Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced Monday in an executive order that he will permit hair salons to reopen with enhanced sanitation guidelines on Friday.

Sinema flipped the open seat of retiring Republican Sen. Jeff Flake in 2018, becoming the first Democrat whom Arizona elected to the Senate since 1988. Not only is she the state's first female senator, but she's also the first openly bisexual senator in U.S. history.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Barbara Sprunt is a producer on NPR's Washington desk, where she reports and produces breaking news and feature political content. She formerly produced the NPR Politics Podcast and got her start in radio at as an intern on NPR's Weekend All Things Considered and Tell Me More with Michel Martin. She is an alumnus of the Paul Miller Reporting Fellowship at the National Press Foundation. She is a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C., and a Pennsylvania native.