Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is registering as an independent, leaving the Democratic Party just days after it secured its 51st vote in the Senate to clinch an outright majority.
The move is not expected to change the balance of power in the upper chamber next year, Politico reported Friday, and as of now, Democrats will still control Senate committees. Sinema won’t caucus with the Republicans and said she will continue to vote the way she always has.
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“I’ve registered as an Arizona independent. I know some people might be a little bit surprised by this, but actually, I think it makes a lot of sense,” she told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday in an interview from her Senate office.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday he agreed to Sinema’s request to keep her committee assignments and that Democrats will have a 51-49 majority in the chamber next year.
“Kyrsten is independent; that’s how she’s always been. I believe she’s a good and effective Senator and am looking forward to a productive session in the new Democratic majority Senate,” he said in a statement. “We will maintain our new majority on committees, exercise our subpoena power, and be able to clear nominees without discharge votes.”
Sinema, who has represented Arizona in the Senate since 2019 and served three terms in the House before that, explained her decision to change parties in an op-ed penned in the Arizona Republic Friday morning, casting herself as an independent voice in a highly partisan Congress.
“When politicians are more focused on denying the opposition party a victory than they are on improving Americans’ lives, the people who lose are everyday Americans,” she wrote. “That’s why I have joined the growing numbers of Arizonans who reject party politics by declaring my independence from the broken partisan system in Washington.”
Sinema has been one of two Democrats in the Senate to frustrate her party’s legislative priorities, the other being centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV). The two opposed elements of President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda, derailing the sweeping plan in Congress.
Sinema was the last holdout on a pared-back yet still expansive version of the bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, but she ultimately voted for the legislation earlier this year following negotiations with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). She has also opposed Democratic calls for carve-outs to the Senate’s filibuster on abortion and voting rights legislation.
She posted a video on Friday leaning into her willingness to buck the party line, saying registering as an independent is a “reflection of who I’ve always been.”
The Arizona senator, up for reelection in 2024, declined to say whether she will run for a second term. If she ran as a Democrat, she could face a primary challenge from Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), an outspoken critic of Sinema who accused her of wanting Democrats to lose control of Congress in the midterm elections.
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“It’s fair to say that I’m not talking about it right now,” she told Politico of a 2024 run. “I keep my eye focused on what I’m doing right now.”
The last time a senator switched parties was in 2009, when then-Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) left the Republican Party to become a Democrat.
