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Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. , speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington, in November 2022. Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona announced she will seek a second term.
PHOENIX >> Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona announced Tuesday that she will seek a second term after her departure from the Democratic Party left her with no political refuge and no clear path to re-election.
Sinema’s announcement comes after Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan bill to secure the U. S. -Mexico border and provide military aid to Ukraine and Israel, a deal Sinema spent months negotiating. He hoped it would be a historic achievement in addressing one of Washington’s most insurmountable problems. challenges, as well as a strong endorsement of his increasingly lonely view that cross-party agreements are still possible.
But ultimately, Sinema’s border security ambitions and congressional career were swallowed up by partisanship that paralyzed Congress.
“I love Arizona and I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished,” she said in a video posted to social media. “Because of courtesy, understanding, listening, and collaboration to get things done, I will be leaving the Senate. by the end of this year. “
Sinema’s resolution avoids a three-way contest in one of the most closely watched senatorial elections of 2024. This hard-to-predict situation has led to a fierce debate among political actors about whether a primary party would gain advantages from pursuing a primary. in the Senado. La most analysts agreed that Sinema would have faced significant, probably insurmountable, obstacles had she had to run.
Sinema, the first openly bisexual user elected to the Senate, had been raising money for a possible re-election campaign and had especially stepped up her public appearances in Arizona around 2023, although her activities tapered off as her announcement approached. During her five-year tenure, she built up a formidable campaign bank account worth $10. 6 million late last year, but her quarterly fundraising was surpassed by Democrat Rubén Gallego and Republican Kari Lake.
Sinema was a Democrat for most of her political career until she left the party in December 2022, saying she did not fit into the two-party system. She had alienated many colleagues and her party’s base by blocking progressive priorities, often siding with business interests. In an era of party loyalty, she went out of her way to build relationships with Republicans.
When Sinema became an independent, Democrats worried she would split the center-left vote and allow a Republican to win the seat.
Republicans have a favorable card in the Senate war this year. Democrats will be forced to protect 23 seats, adding Sinema’s and two others held by independents who regularly vote with Democrats, compared to 10 seats for Republicans.
Sinema has tried to build her Senate career in the direction of John McCain, the Arizona Republican whose willingness to oppose the GOP infuriated his party’s base but endeared him to the state’s more moderate voters.
But he eventually reached out to Jeff Flake, a former Republican senator from Arizona who opposed then-President Donald Trump and became a pariah within his party. Like Sinema, Flake declined to run for a second term after it became clear she could simply not run in a primary.
Flake supported Trump-opposed Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 and rewarded him with an appointment by the president as ambassador to Turkey.
Sinema didn’t say what the future holds, but in her video message announcing her departure, she blamed the existing political climate, saying “Americans are deciding to retreat further into their partisan corners. “
“It’s all or nothing,” he said. “The political victories that matter on those days are symbolic and attack the warring parties on cable news or social media. »
His 2018 election marked the first time in a generation that Democrats won an Arizona Senate seat. It was the beginning of an era of ascent for Democrats in a state long governed by the Republican Party.
In the Senate, she has been at the center of many of the biggest bipartisan congressional deals of Biden’s presidency, from an infrastructure package and a new gun law to protection for same-sex marriages.
She worked with members of both parties and she tried to find compromises, often preferring to hang out on the Republican side of the Senate floor to talk to GOP lawmakers. And she became known for diving into the details of policy, keeping spreadsheets and notebooks filled with detail during negotiations.
Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican who sat at the negotiating table with Sinema, said she would miss her in the Senate. “I like other people who are willing to walk down the aisle and get things done,” Collins said.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who has at times had a strained relationship with Sinema, said the Arizona senator “blazed a trail of accomplishments in the Senate.”
Sinema has been a reliable vote for Democrats when it comes to top nominations and legislation. But with the party paralyzed by razor-thin majorities, he refused to give his blessing to some of the progressive movement’s sensible top priorities.
Her support for maintaining the Senate’s filibuster rule, which requires 60 of 100 votes to pass most legislation instead of a simple majority, has been a particular source of frustration for progressives, who say it gives Republicans a veto despite the Democratic majority. Sinema says it forces the bipartisan compromise that most voters crave.
She single-handedly thwarted her party’s long-standing purpose of raising taxes on wealthy investors. The year before, he earned about $1 million from personal equity professionals, hedge fund managers and venture capitalists whose taxes would be higher under the plan.
Sometimes it turns out that he loves to serve as an obstacle.
He took a bow as he voted against raising the minimum wage. A few weeks later, while the reaction to that vote was still fresh, she posted a photo on Instagram of herself at brunch wearing a ring that said “f—-off. “
Progressives are under greater pressure. Activists followed her into the bathroom to seek answers to her questions. The complaint interrupted a wedding to which she was invited. The Rev. Jesse Jackson was among the protesters arrested at a protest outside his Phoenix office.
Long before she was up for re-election, donors threatened to pull out and several teams began raising money to help a conceivable rival.
In 2022, before becoming independent, Arizona Democratic Party leaders censured Sinema, a symbolic move that had no practical effect but was emblematic of the breakdown of her relationship with the party.
Sinema’s political career began as an anti-war activist. A self-described “Prada Socialist,” she ran unsuccessfully in local elections as a member of the Green Party. She was later elected to the Arizona Legislature as a Democrat and has become a prolific spokesperson opposing Republican bills. Witty, concise and approachable, he quickly marks the bloodhounds that cover the Legislative Assembly.
But he concluded that he could be more effective building bridges with the Republican majority than publicly condemning them, he wrote in his 2009 book, “Unite and Conquer. ” This was the beginning of his evolution into center and a personality that shaped his national brand.
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