Sifton grew up in Kansas City, Missouri and graduated from Truman State University in 1996, where he served as Student Senate President and was a founding member of the Truman chapter of Beta Theta Pi. Sifton received his Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School in 1999. His first political experience came working for President Bill Clinton's re-election campaign in 1996 and he worked on a state bus tour for Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan. During law school he clerked for then-Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon.
