Phoenix — Kyrsten Sinema, an independent senator from Arizona, declared on Tuesday that she will not seek reelection after her break with the Democratic Party left her politically homeless.
A bipartisan bill to safeguard the U.S.-Mexico border and provide military aid to Ukraine and Israel, which Sinema spent months crafting, was blocked by Senate Republicans. She hoped it would be a landmark success tackling one of Washington's most intractable problems and a powerful confirmation of her increasingly lonely conviction that cross-party dealmaking is feasible.
Sinema's border-security goals and congressional career were overshadowed by Congress's bickering. “I love Arizona and I am so proud of what we’ve delivered,” she said in a social media video. I will leave the Senate at the end of the year because I value decency, understanding, listening, and collaboration.
Sinema's decision avoids a three-way race in one of the most keenly watched 2024 Senate contests. This unpredictable scenario sparked strong debate among political operatives about whether one major party would gain in the Senate majority quest. Most observers believed Sinema would face insurmountable obstacles if she ran.
Sinema, the first openly bisexual senator, gathered money for a possible reelection campaign and increased her public appearances in Arizona throughout 2023, but her activities halted as her announcement approached. She had a $10.6 million campaign bank account at the end of last year after five years in office, yet Democrat Ruben Gallego and Republican Kari Lake outraised her quarterly!
A Democrat for most of her career, Sinema quit in December 2022, saying she didn't fit within the two-party system. She alienated many colleagues and her party base by opposing progressive policies and favoring business. In a period of party allegiance, she sought out Republican alliances.
When Sinema became an independent, Democrats worried she would split the left-of-center vote and give the seat to a Republican. Republicans have an advantage in the Senate race this year. Democrats must defend 23 seats, including Sinema's and two independents who normally vote for them, while Republicans maintain 10 seats.
Sinema tried to emulate John McCain, the Arizona Republican who defied his party's base yet won over centrist voters. She eventually followed Jeff Flake, a former Arizona Republican senator who opposed then-President Donald Trump and became a party outcast. After failing a primary, Flake, like Sinema, stopped running for reelection.
Flake was appointed ambassador to Turkey by Trump after supporting Joe Biden in 2020. Sinema did not reveal her future. In her resignation video, she criticized the political atmosphere, saying “Americans still choose to retreat farther to their partisan corners.”
“It’s all or nothing,” she remarked. “The only political victories that matter these days are symbolic, attacking your opponents on cables or social media.” Democrats gained Arizona's Senate seat for the first time in a generation in 2018. Democrats rose to power in a GOP-dominated state.
stay turned for development