OAN’s Abril Elfi
4:43 PM – Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Senator Kyrsten Sinema has announced that she will not be seeking re-election in Arizona.
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On Tuesday, Sinema also announced that she will be leaving both the Senate and the Democrat party in order to become an Independent.
“Because I choose civility, understanding, listening, and working together to get stuff done, I will leave the Senate at the end of this year,” Sinema said in a video posted on her X account.
“Compromise is a dirty word. 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 said.
The leading Republican, 2022 gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, and the leading Democrat, Representative Ruben Gallego, are already in talks to replace Sinema.
Although there have not been very many polls released yet, the existing surveys have consistently placed Sinema in third place in a hypothetical three-way race with Gallego and Lake.
Gallego released a statement, praising Sinema for her decision.
“As we look ahead, Arizona is at a crossroads. Protecting abortion access, tackling housing affordability, securing our water supply, defending our democracy — all of this and more is on the line,” he said in a statement. “I welcome all Arizonans, including Senator Sinema, to join me in that mission.”
Lake also released a statement regarding the decision, stating that Sinema shares her love for Arizona.
“We may not agree on everything, but I know she shares my love 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,” Lake said.
Sinema was initially a Democrat when she was elected to the Arizona legislature in 2004. She referred to Arizona as the “meth lab of democracy” at a progressive event in 2011 and attacked state Republicans for their proposed legislation.
In 2012, Sinema campaigned for and was elected to the U.S. House, demonstrating her centrist-left credentials throughout her voting record. She halted a losing streak for Democrats and won a Senate seat in 2018.
Sinema left the party to become an Independent in December of 2022 but had not said anything about running for re-election.
In 2020, Arizona’s trend toward becoming a purple state was validated when Biden defeated then-President Donald Trump by a narrow margin.
Democratic candidate for governor of Arizona, Mark Kelly, defeated Republican candidate Lake by five percentage points in 2022. Meanwhile, in another statewide contest, Democratic candidate Hobbs defeated Lake by less than one point.
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