Kyrsten Sinema Won’t Run For Reelection To The Senate

Ted Johnson
·2 min read
3
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) said that she won’t run for reelection to the Senate.

“Because I choose civility, understanding, listening, working together to get stuff done, I will leave the Senate at the end of this year,” Sinema said in a video statement posted on her X/Twitter account today.

More from Deadline

“Over my career, I have shown how government can work for everyday people,” she added, citing a host of bipartisan legislation.

She said that despite all of those accomplishments, “Americans still choose to retreat farther to their partisan corners. These solutions are considered failures, either because they are too much or not nearly enough. It’s all or nothing. The outcome, less important than beating the other guy.”

Sinema left the Democratic party at the end of 2022 and switched her affiliation to independent, as she faced a potential primary challenge. But she had withheld announcing her plans until now.

At the time, Sinema had become an outlier in the party, as she refused to go along with a signature piece of President Joe Biden’s agenda, the Build Back Better Act. That legislation was eventually pared down and eventually passed with her support and that of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WA), another moderate Democrat who has also decided to retire from the Senate.

More recently, Sinema has taken a leading role in reaching agreement on a bipartisan border bill. But that legislation was sidelined after Donald Trump opposed it, with House Republican leadership refusing to even consider it.

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) is seeking the Democratic nomination for the seat in the Aug. 6 primary. On the Republican side, Kari Lake and Mark Lamb are among the candidates seeking the nomination.

More to come.

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.