Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., on May 3, 2024, in Sedona.
Kyrsten Sinema arrived in the U.S. Senate in 2019 as a Democrat with a pledge to model her tenure on another Arizona senator, self-described Republican “maverick” John McCain, who died just months before her election.
She lived up to that promise in some ways, bucking her party’s leadership and rarely hewing to colleagues’ or constituents’ expectations.
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But in the process, Sinema, 48, became known as an unreliable partner, earning the enmity of one-time fellow Democrats — she left the party to become an independent in 2022 — and an approval rating in the single digits back in Arizona.
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She came to office as the first outy bisexual senator, following three terms in the U.S. House and three in the Arizona Legislature. Part of her lore was the way she came out as a freshman Arizona rep.
Sinema’s first public comment after she was sworn in was in response to a fellow lawmaker who insulted the LGBTQ+ community. “We’re simply people like everyone else who want and deserve respect,” Sinema responded from the Arizona House floor. Asked about her speech later, Sinema told reporters, “Duh, I’m bisexual.”
But in a sign of her style to come (along with the millennial affectations and an ever-changing appearance), Sinema claimed to have forgotten about the episode during her first run for Congress and avoided discussion of her bisexuality.
She did go on to co-sponsor both the Equality Act and the Respect for Marriage Act in the Senate.
It was her overt, and self-aggrandizing, obstruction of President Joe Biden’s agenda, though, that Sinema will be remembered for: she joined another now-former Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) to block elimination of the filibuster, and with it, Democrats’ hopes for enacting legislation on voting and LGBTQ+ rights, the economy and climate change. It was a stand that brought scorn from Democratic colleagues and voters and found Sinema, in the end, with few friends on either side of the aisle.
After Arizona Democrats censured her for failing to vote the filibuster out, Sinema left the party rather than capitulate.
Her farewell speech on the Senate floor Wednesday rang with an emotional defense of her actions.
“In recent history, both parties have wrestled with the importance of norms and rules, and both parties have viewed these norms and rules as outdated, constraining, or simply obstacles to their short-term victories.”
“Many now blame these guard rails for blocking critical progress instead of recognizing that it is us, our actions, our words, our incivility, and ultimately our unwillingness to compromise that prevent reasonable solutions from advancing.”
“When holding political power and feeling the hunger and pressure for an immediate partisan win, it is easy to view the legislative filibuster as a weapon of obstruction. It is tempting to prefer elimination of the filibuster to compromise. It certainly feels faster, easier, and more satisfying, at least in the short term, that is.”
“But there are dangers to choosing short-term victories over the hard, and necessary, work of building consensus. To give in to the temptation of the short-term victory means giving in to the chaos caused by the constant ricocheting of laws, or it means you labor under an illusion that by eliminating the filibuster you’ll maintain political power forever, effectively ending our two-party system.”
“That’s a fallacy. And worse, it’s scary. One-party rule is not democracy. That’s autocracy.”
Just moments before finishing, Sinema turned to see Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer walk into the Senate chamber behind her. He wasn’t on the floor to hear her speech but politely applauded her departure.
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