Politics

Kyrsten Sinema Will Not Run For Reelection To The Senate

No featured image available

Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona will not run for reelection in 2024, according to a video message she posted on Twitter, now known as X, on Tuesday.

Sinema was elected to the Senate in 2018 as a Democrat but left the party after the 2022 midterm elections. Alongside Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who is also retiring, she has taken a moderate position in the body and often voted against Democratic priorities, such as exceptions to the filibuster.

“The only political victories that matter these days are symbolic: attacking your opponents on cable news or social media. Compromise is a dirty word,” Sinema lamented in her video message. “I believe in my approach, but it’s not what America wants right now…because I chose civility, understanding, listening, and working together to get stuff done, I will leave the Senate at the end of this year.”

Following her departure from the Democratic Party, Sinema would have faced a difficult general election if she ran for a second term. Polls showed her trailing both Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, the leading Democratic candidate to succeed her with the backing of the party leadership, as well as former local news anchor and Republican candidate Kari Lake, the frontrunner in the state’s GOP primary.

While in the Senate, Sinema’s refusal to support exceptions to the Senate’s cloture rule — requiring that at least 60 senators vote to advance measures to final passage, known more commonly as a “filibuster” — attracted significant opposition from Democrats in Arizona and the wider Democratic Party. During the 117th Congress, with both houses being under Democratic control, the party attempted to pass major legislative items such as the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, only to see them fail due to the absence of 60 votes to overcome the filibuster.

Additionally, Sinema served as one of three leading negotiators on a bipartisan national security bill released on Feb. 4 that would have enacted significant measures regarding border security and the U.S. immigration system as well as authorized foreign military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. That bill failed to advance from the body on Feb. 7, amid criticism from Republicans that its border security provisions were inadequate, while former President Donald Trump, the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, called it a “Death Wish” for the party.

“[T]he Senate sacrificed critical, commonsense solutions at the altar of vitriolic party politics and it reaffirmed my decision not to run for reelection to the Senate,” Manchin wrote of the decision to reject the bill. “Partisanship won. The Senate has failed Arizona. Shameful,” Sinema remarked of the decision.

Furthermore, Sinema attracted attention during her tenure for often wearing colorful clothes and wigs on the Senate floor, which cut a contrast with the business attire worn by most of her colleagues.

Before joining the Senate, Sinema served in the U.S. House of Representatives for six years representing Arizona’s 9th Congressional District, as well as in both chambers of the Arizona State Legislature. She is a social worker and attorney by training.

Candidates running to succeed Sinema praised her following her decision.

“I want to thank @SenatorSinema for her nearly two decades of service to our state,” Gallego wrote on Twitter after Sinema’s announcement. “It’s time Democrats, Independents, and Republicans come together and reject Kari Lake and her dangerous positions. For Arizona.”

“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,” wrote Lake on Twitter. “I will be a voice for ALL Arizonans. I wish Senator Sinema the best in her next chapter.”