March 05, 2024 12:00 PM UTC

Arizona's Sen. Kyrsten Sinema Bows Out

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• by: Colorado Pols

We interrupt our coverage of Colorado political news for this big story from our caddy-corner neighbor to the southwest: Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who disaffiliated from the Democratic Party after emerging as a major roadblock to the Senate majority’s agenda two years ago, will retire instead of running for another term. Washington Post:

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) announced she will not seek reelection this year, avoiding an unpredictable three-way race in the swing state that had many national Democrats worried about holding onto the seat.

“I believe in my approach, but it’s not what America wants right now,” Sinema said in a video announcing her plans.

She listed several bipartisan accomplishments but said “compromise is a dirty word” in the current system, and that her political style was no longer appreciated.

Sinema earned the ire of liberal Democrats for consistently second-guessing legislation supported by the majority, considered a major betrayal of her base from a politician who once ran on a much more progressive platform. Sinema’s departure sets up a clean two-way race between Rep. Ruben Gallego and Republican serial election denier Kari Lake, which is a big boost to Democratic chances of taking/holding the seat.

History will remember Sinema as a politician who broke some barriers, but in the end her attempts to please both sides left Sinema without a majority coalition. The goodwill Sinema essentially purchased from Republicans with her intransigence when her party desperately needed unity would never have translated into votes, while her alienation of the Democratic base deprived Sinema of her own necessary core of support.

Sinema could have been more than a cautionary tale. But that’s the fate she chose.