Nobody should have been shocked by the news that Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) has finally decided not to seek reelection. The writing has been on the wall for years now that she was doomed. Yet her excuses for not seeking reelection don’t add up.
"In 2017, I warned we were approaching a crossroads. Our democracy was weakened by government dysfunction and the constant pull to the extremes by both political parties,” she said in a video posted to social media announcing her retirement. "I promised I would do my best to fix it, to protect and defend our Constitution, to listen to others without judging, to focus on what unites us, and to make Americans' lives better."
Sinema continued:
Yet, despite modernizing our infrastructure, ensuring clean water, delivering good jobs and safer communities, Americans still choose to retreat farther to their partisan corners. These solutions are considered failures, either because they're 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 media. "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.
First of all, America isn’t voting for her; the state of Arizona is. And the reason she is dropping out is entirely because of her former party, the Democratic Party of Arizona.
While it’s true that Sinema got in the way of Joe Biden's Build Back Better, election overhaul attempts, and even the confirmation of a select few of his controversial administration nominees, that doesn’t mean she was an agent of compromise or unity.
Related: AZ Senator Kyrsten Sinema Won't Run for Re-election
Sinema overwhelmingly sided with the Democrat agenda — she voted with Biden 94% of the time — but became a target of the radical left in her state for not toeing the Biden line 100% of the time. It didn't matter that she had supported all of his judicial nominees, even the most controversial and incompetent ones. None of that mattered. Consequently, deep-pocketed leftists worked hard to ensure she didn't survive her primary.
There’s no justification for Sinema to pat herself on the back for being a centrist. The media may call her a centrist or an independent, but she is a leftist, through and through. Yet, she managed to get elected in a red state. Her crossover appeal was due to a few select objections to the Biden agenda, which was necessary if she had any chance of getting reelected in 2024.
It would have worked, too. Polls showed that while she was underwater with Democrats, she had more support from Republicans. Had Arizona Democrats not forced her to change her party affiliation to independent, Sinema likely would have won reelection as a Democrat by peeling off a small but consequential number of Republican voters. She would have been a tough candidate to beat in the general election in 2024 had she not been forced to leave her party. Though polls have been all over the place, the latest Rasmussen poll has Republican Kari Lake up three points over Democrat Ruben Gallego in a two-way matchup, and Trump has a solid lead over Biden.
Despite Sinema's rhetoric, it was Arizona Democrats who forced her retirement from the Senate. Arizona Republicans would have likely reelected her in a two-way race with Kari Lake.
