About a month ago, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” and host Margaret Brennan asked the senator about her re-election plans. The Arizona independent, seemingly indifferent to a rapidly approaching filing deadline, replied that she hasn’t been focused on electoral considerations.
Evidently, she’s had time to think about her future — and that future does not involve a second term. NBC News reported:
Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema announced Tuesday that she will not run for re-election this year, leaving the Senate after one term that saw her paint Arizona blue, leave the Democratic Party and play a key role in numerous legislative negotiations in a tightly divided Senate. “I will leave the Senate at the end of this year,” Sinema said in a video posted on her X account.
The outgoing senator, whose plans have been murky for months, elaborated on her perspective in a three-minute, direct-to-camera video released via social media this afternoon.
By any fair measure, Sinema wasn’t left with much of a choice: Recent polling in Arizona showed her struggling badly against Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego and Republican conspiracy theorist Kari Lake. Had she decided to seek a second term, the incumbent faced likely defeat.
Voters in the Grand Canyon State will now have a two-person race instead of a three-person race.
To hear Sinema tell it, she’s stepping down after one term in large part because her work wasn’t as appreciated as it should be.
“[D]espite modernizing our infrastructure, ensuring clean water, delivering good jobs and safer communities, Americans still choose to retreat farther to their partisan corners,” the Arizonan said. “These solutions are considered failures either because they are too much, or not nearly enough. It’s all or nothing. The outcome, less important than beating the other guy.
“The only political victories that matter these days are symbolic, attacking your opponents on cable news or social…
Read the full article here
