Independent Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema won’t seek re-election
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema announced Tuesday that she won’t seek re-election, ending the possibility of a compelling three-way battle for her hotly contested seat.
Sinema (I-Ariz.) bowing out is a big boost to the likely Democratic nominee, progressive Rep. Ruben Gallego, who most polls showed leading both Sinema and presumptive Republican nominee Kari Lake.
Sinema, 47, was elected to the Senate as a Democrat in 2018 before switching her affiliation to Independent in late 2022.
“Despite modernizing our infrastructure, ensuring clean water, delivering good jobs in safer communities, Americans still choose to retreat to their partisan corners,” Sinema lamented in her exit video.In her retirement announcement, she vented her frustrations with the state current landscape of partisan politics.
“The only political victories that matter these days are symbolic — attacking your opponents on cable news or social media. Compromise is a dirty word,” she complained.
“We’ve arrived at that crossroad and we chose anger and division. I believe in my approach, but it’s not what America wants right now.”
Sinema had been facing an April 1 deadline to file thousands of signatures in order to qualify for the ballot.
Given her anemic fundraising numbers, there had been rampant speculation that she wouldn’t seek a second term.
For weeks, she had ducked questions about her future plans after filing paperwork to run for a second term in late 2022.
During President Biden’s first two years in office, Sinema was vaulted into the limelight due to her penchant for bucking party lines and tanking multiple big-ticket progressive wishlist items — including multi-trillion dollar iterations of the so-called Build Back Better agenda, drawing left-wing ire.
Gallego announced his bid for Sinema’s Senate seat in early 2023, but had been eyeing a primary challenge against her before she swapped her party affiliation.
“I want to thank Senator Sinema for her nearly two decades of service to our state,” Gallego said in a statement Tuesday.
“Protecting abortion access, tackling housing affordability, securing our water supply, defending our democracy — all of this and more is on the line,” he went on. “I welcome all Arizonans, including Senator Sinema, to join me in that mission.”
Lake, the unsuccessful 2022 Arizona GOP gubernatorial nominee, wished Sinema “the best in her next chapter.”
“We may not agree on everything, but I know she shares my love for Arizona,” Lake said.
“Senator Sinema had the courage to stand tall against the Far-Left in defense of the filibuster — despite the overwhelming pressure from the radicals in her party like Ruben Gallego who called on her to burn it all down.”
Sinema has been a key player in a multitude of legislative battles.
Recently, she served as a top negotiator for the Senate’s border reform compromise bill that failed last month.
She was also instrumental in the bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that passed in 2021.
“Despite modernizing our infrastructure, ensuring clean water, delivering good jobs in safer communities, Americans still choose to retreat to their partisan corners,” Sinema lamented in her exit video.
“These solutions are considered failures either because they’re too much or not nearly enough. It’s all or nothing. The outcome [is] less important than beating the other guy.”
Ironically, when Sinema first entered the political scene back in the early 2000s and ran to be a state legislator, she was a hardcore leftist and member of the Green Party.
As her time in Congress progressed, she lurched to the center and became deeply fond of bipartisanship, repeating speaking up to preserve the Senate’s 60-vote legislative filibuster.
With her departure, Sinema joins fellow moderates Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) in heading for the Senate exit in January 2025.
