(The Guardian) Sinema leaves Democrats to become independent
Democrats woke to a bombshell development from Arizona, where Senator Kyrsten Sinema has announced she is leaving the party and has registered as an independent.
The dramatic news comes just three days after Raphael Warnock’s re-election in Georgia gave the Democratic party what they thought was a 51-49 majority in the chamber (which includes the two other Senate independents Angus King of Maine, and Vermont’s Bernie Sanders).
The enigmatic Sinema’s defection will leave party chiefs scrambling to figure how, and indeed if, their new majority will work. While Sinema says she won’t caucus with Republicans, she says in a Friday op-ed in the Arizona Republic that the partisan system in the US is “broken”, and neither party can count on her support.
Sinema: independence 'won't change my work in Senate'
Kyrsten Sinema’s bombshell defection from the Democratic party will have far-reaching consequences as Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer attempts to plot a course through the upcoming Congress.
In her op-ed in the Arizona Republic on Friday announcing the move, the enigmatic Sinema sought to assure voters that “becoming an independent won’t change my work in the Senate; my service to Arizona remains the same”.
But the free-spirited politician, the first openly bisexual woman in the Senate, says she considers the bipartisan system in the US “broken” and won’t pledge her support to either party: Americans are told that we have only two choices - Democrat or Republican - and that we must subscribe wholesale to policy views the parties hold, views that have been pulled further and further toward the extremes. When politicians are more focused on denying the opposition party a victory than they are on improving Americans’ lives, the people who lose are everyday Americans.
Not that she fully supported the Democratic agenda in Joe Biden’s first two years in office, often teaming up with centrist West Virginia senator Joe Manchin to stall key parts of the president’s agenda.
Yet the statement will still alarm party leaders, who thought they had secured a 51-49 majority on Tuesday when Raphael Warnock won re-election in Georgia. Unlike Bernie Sanders (Vermont) and Angus King (Maine) who caucus with the Democrats, Sinema as an independent – unshackled by the Democratic party whip – will be an altogether different beast, whatever she says about her behavior not changing.
It’s not even clear she will retain her office on the Democratic side of the chamber. Or if she will re-election in 2024, something she says she won’t address yet. It also restores “outsized influence in the Democratic caucus” to Manchin, according to Politico, which sat down for a 45-minute chat with Sinema this morning. Manchin was the main thorn in Biden’s side from within when the Senate was split 50-50.
Democrats woke to a bombshell development from Arizona, where Senator Kyrsten Sinema has announced she is leaving the party and has registered as an independent.
The dramatic news comes just three days after Raphael Warnock’s re-election in Georgia gave the Democratic party what they thought was a 51-49 majority in the chamber (which includes the two other Senate independents Angus King of Maine, and Vermont’s Bernie Sanders).
The enigmatic Sinema’s defection will leave party chiefs scrambling to figure how, and indeed if, their new majority will work. While Sinema says she won’t caucus with Republicans, she says in a Friday op-ed in the Arizona Republic that the partisan system in the US is “broken”, and neither party can count on her support.
Sinema: independence 'won't change my work in Senate'
Kyrsten Sinema’s bombshell defection from the Democratic party will have far-reaching consequences as Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer attempts to plot a course through the upcoming Congress.
In her op-ed in the Arizona Republic on Friday announcing the move, the enigmatic Sinema sought to assure voters that “becoming an independent won’t change my work in the Senate; my service to Arizona remains the same”.
But the free-spirited politician, the first openly bisexual woman in the Senate, says she considers the bipartisan system in the US “broken” and won’t pledge her support to either party: Americans are told that we have only two choices - Democrat or Republican - and that we must subscribe wholesale to policy views the parties hold, views that have been pulled further and further toward the extremes. When politicians are more focused on denying the opposition party a victory than they are on improving Americans’ lives, the people who lose are everyday Americans.
Not that she fully supported the Democratic agenda in Joe Biden’s first two years in office, often teaming up with centrist West Virginia senator Joe Manchin to stall key parts of the president’s agenda.
Yet the statement will still alarm party leaders, who thought they had secured a 51-49 majority on Tuesday when Raphael Warnock won re-election in Georgia. Unlike Bernie Sanders (Vermont) and Angus King (Maine) who caucus with the Democrats, Sinema as an independent – unshackled by the Democratic party whip – will be an altogether different beast, whatever she says about her behavior not changing.
It’s not even clear she will retain her office on the Democratic side of the chamber. Or if she will re-election in 2024, something she says she won’t address yet. It also restores “outsized influence in the Democratic caucus” to Manchin, according to Politico, which sat down for a 45-minute chat with Sinema this morning. Manchin was the main thorn in Biden’s side from within when the Senate was split 50-50.
