The more things stay the same for the mavericky.
WASHINGTON — Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) has filed paperwork to run for re-election as an independent in 2024 — one week after announcing she’d switched her political registration from Democratic and setting up a potential three-way showdown in a key battleground state.
Sinema, 46, has not formally announced her re-election run, and her office could not be immediately reached for comment. The filing was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The senator’s name did not immediately appear on a list of individuals who have filed statements of interest to run in the 2024 election on the website of the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office as of Friday afternoon. However, a candidate profile on the Federal Election Commission website listed Sinema as an independent.
The senator made headlines last week when she announced she was leaving the Democratic Party, writing in an editorial in the Arizona Republic that she “never fit perfectly in either national party.”
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Until recently, Sinema has seemed to delight in the power an evenly split Senate gave her, which she used to benefit the financial and pharmaceutical industries. Negotiating the Inflation Reduction Act, she single-handedly stopped Democrats from closing the carried interest loophole, a provision that significantly cuts the tax bills of Wall Street investors. And Sinema insisted on narrowing the part of the law meant to bring down prescription drug prices, earning criticism even from Joe Manchin, the centrist West Virginia Democrat with whom she is frequently aligned.
“One of her deep flaws is that she doesn’t realize our actions have impacts every day on people who need our help,” said Ruben Gallego, a Democratic Arizona congressman who’d been considering a primary campaign against Sinema.
For much of this year, Sinema appeared to be preparing for a future in a Senate run by the Republican Mitch McConnell. In September, at a cozy appearance with McConnell in Kentucky, she said, “As you all know, control changes between the House and the Senate every couple of years. It’s likely to change again in just a few weeks.” She described McConnell as a friend, and he praised her as the “most effective first-term senator” he’d seen in his career.
Had Republicans won the Senate, Sinema could have become an independent who caucused with Republicans, preserving her place in the majority. A red wave might have seemed to vindicate her aggressive centrism, especially if Senator Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat far more loyal to his party, had lost. But Kelly won and Democrats picked up a Senate seat. That meant Sinema could no longer hold the rest of the Democratic caucus hostage, or argue that only Democrats who defy their base are electable in her state. She was about to become a lot less relevant. Now she’s center stage again.
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