Senator Krysten Sinema of Arizona will not seek a second term in office.
“I love Arizona and I am so proud of what we’ve delivered,” she said in a video posted on X. “Because I choose civility, understanding, listening, working together to get stuff done, I will leave the Senate at the end of this year.”
Sinema’s race was forecasted to be one of the country’s most competitive and she will now avoid a three-way face-off.
In her statement, the 48-year-old said she warned in 2017 that the county was “approaching a crossroads” and that the government was dysfunctional.
“I promised I would do my best to fix it,” Sinema continued “To protect and defend our constitution, to listen to others without judging, to focus on what unites us, and to make America’s lives better. Through listening, understanding, and compromise, we deliver tangible results that make America stronger, safer, and more prosperous”
She lamented that Americans “still choose to retreat farther into their partisan corners” and that the only “political victories that matter today are symbolic.”
Sinema switched her party affiliation from Democrat to Independent in December of 2022. She was the first Democrat to be elected to the Senate from Arizona in 30 years when she won her race in 2018. Sinema pledged not to caucus with Republicans, however, giving the Democrats control of the chamber. Independent Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King also caucus with the Democrats.
The senator said she “never really fit into a box of any political party,” per POLITICO. She ultimately earned a mixed reputation as her centrist leaning made her both productive and irritating to her more progressive colleagues. She blocked a number of the Biden administration’s legislative priorities, including the Build Back Better plan.
“Sinema, the first openly bisexual person elected to the Senate, had raised money for a potential reelection campaign and significantly stepped up her public appearances in Arizona throughout 2023, though her activities slowed as her announcement neared,” reports The Detroit News. “During her five years in office, she built a formidable campaign bank account pegged at $10.6 million on Dec. 31, 2023, but her quarterly fundraising was outpaced by Democrat Ruben Gallego and Republican Kari Lake.”
Prior to her time in the Senate, Sinema was a member of the Arizona legislature from 2004 to 2012 and the United States House of Representatives from 2013 to 2018.
