Just days after her former party won a runoff election in Georgia and gained an outright majority in the 100-member chamber, U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, one of only two LGBTQ and the only bisexual members in the U.S. Senate, has disaffiliated from the Democratic Party and turned independent.
Sinema announced her decision to leave the Democratic Party in an opinion piece she wrote for the Arizona Republic on Friday. Her statement caused a stir in Washington, where some people speculated that her defection might call into question who controls the U.S. Senate.
In contrast, Sinema stated in an interview with Politico that she would not caucus with the Republican Party.
“Nothing will change about my values or behavior,” she said in the interview.
Assuming she stays to that vow, to keep her committees, she’d have to caucus with Democrats. This would ensure that Democrats have a second committee seat and give the Democratic caucus, which currently consists of 48 Democrats and two independents (Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont), a 51st vote. This would simplify bringing legislation and judicial nominations to the floor for votes.
Due to the 50/50 split in the Senate, if a committee cannot agree on a particular issue, a unique, complicated procedure involving procedural votes is used to discharge nominations and bills from committees. This procedure effectively slows down legislation passing through the upper chamber.
In a statement to Reuters, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) confirmed that he had agreed to allow Sinema to maintain her committee assignments into the next Congress.
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This would enable Democrats to move legislation and, more importantly, long-stalled nominations to executive agencies and district and circuit courts to the floor for up-or-down votes more quickly, given the federal judiciary’s conservative leanings.
Sinema is not the first senator to change parties while serving in office; former senators Jim Jeffords (I-VT), Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.), and Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) come to mind; however, by announcing her “independence” from the Democratic Party, she has ensured that she will continue to be an essential senator when it comes to negotiating on legislation or making deals because she can threaten to obstruct procedural.
Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) have been a thorn in the side of Democratic leadership for the past two years, refusing to waive the filibuster rule that requires a supermajority of 60 votes for any legislation to pass the Senate and withholding votes for legislation prioritized by President Joe Biden until they receive concessions.
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Sinema, who may be re-elected in 2024, has also made it difficult for Democrats to maintain control of the upper house. A third-party run as an independent may, at least theoretically, give her a road to winning by appealing to independents and moderates inside the two parties, even if public polls indicate that the majority of Arizonans, regardless of political affiliation, hold negative opinions of her.
However, Sinema has never received much support from Republican voters, so few are likely to support her in a general election. Therefore, if Democrats choose a strong and well-known candidate for the position, such as U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, they risk losing the seat by alienating the supporters of their coalition.
BREAKING: Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema leaves Democratic Party, registers as independenthttps://t.co/CgSSbjD11z
— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 9, 2022
In previous elections, Democrats in Maine and Vermont typically fielded stand-in candidates against King and Sanders, who are both up for re-election in 2024, to prevent Republicans from consolidating their support and winning with just a majority of the vote.
Sinema argued that her decision to leave the Democratic Party was motivated by principle and a rejection of solid partisanship in an opinion piece she wrote for the Republic.
“Like many Arizonans, I have never fit perfectly in either national party,” she wrote. “While Arizonans don’t all agree on the issues, we are united in our values of hard work, common sense and independence. … We don’t line up to do what we’re told, automatically subscribe to whatever positions the national political parties dictate, or view every issue through labels that divide us.”
“Pressures in both parties pull leaders to the edges, allowing the loudest, most extreme voices to determine their respective parties’ priorities and expecting the rest of us to fall in line.”
This will throw an interesting wrinkle into the next 2 years…. https://t.co/OgTFvcnIFe
— John Roberts (@johnrobertsFox) December 9, 2022
“In catering to the fringes, neither party has demonstrated much tolerance for diversity of thought,” she added. “Bipartisan compromise is seen as a rarely acceptable last resort, rather than the best way to achieve lasting progress. Payback against the opposition party has replaced thoughtful legislating.”
“Some partisans believe they own this Senate seat. They don’t,” she said. “ This Senate seat doesn’t belong to Democratic or Republican bosses in Washington. It doesn’t belong to one party or the other, and it doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to Arizona, which is far too special a place to be defined by extreme partisans and ideologues. It’s an honor to represent the state I live in the U.S. Senate. And while I do, I pledge to continue doing exactly what I promised — to be an independent voice for Arizona. ”
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