(Washington) Independent senator from Arizona (southwest), Kyrsten Sinema, announced Tuesday that she would not run for re-election and would leave the Senate this fall after only one term, which has made her an atypical figure in politics American.
“I will leave the Senate at the end of the year because I choose courtesy, mutual understanding, understanding, cooperation,” said the former member of the Democratic Party in a message broadcast on the social network X.
“Compromise has become a dirty word. We are at a crossroads and we have chosen anger and division,” regretted this 47-year-old woman, who left President Joe Biden’s party in December 2022 to declare herself independent.
This decision had reinforced the image of the chosen one as a free electron.
She has more than once forced Joe Biden, holder of a very slim majority in the Senate, to come to terms with his centrist and liberal positions, even if it meant making his Democratic colleagues bristle.
Kyrsten Sinema’s announcement comes a few months after that of another elected official with a comparable profile: West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin.
The latter, positioned to the right of the Democratic Party, made it known last November that he would not run again in his state, a mining land and traditionally Republican.
Kyrsten Sinema was elected senator from Arizona in 2018, which had not chosen a Democrat for this position in thirty years. She is also the first woman to win a senatorial election there.
According to the press, his chances of retaining his seat were slim in any case, facing the two other main contenders: Democrat Ruben Gallego and Republican Kari Lake, a protégé of former President Donald Trump.
Arizona is considered a “swing state”, likely to lean Democratic or Republican depending on the vote, while others are considered to favor one or the other party – for example the California Democratic, and Texas Republican.