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Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema Not Running for Reelection

Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema Not Running for Reelection

Arizona Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego will face off against Kari Lake, who lost the governor race in 2022.

The Arizona Senate race is down to two.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema will not seek reelection in November, leaving the chamber at the end of the year.

“I love Arizona and I am so proud of what we’ve delivered,” said Sinema. “Because I choose civility, understanding, listening, working together to get stuff done, I will leave the Senate at the end of this year.”

Sinema became an independent in 2022 after standing up for the filibuster. Sen. Joe Manchin, who is also retiring, and Sinema have been moderates. They haven’t leaned as far left as other Democrats.

I’m not going to lie. I’ll miss Sinema and Manchin. I don’t always agree with them, but they were never scared to stand up to Democrats and not toe the party line.

Sinema mentioned the problems in both parties:

“Our democracy was weakened by government dysfunction and the constant pull to the extremes by both political parties,” Sinema said in a video announcement posted to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “I promised I would do my best to fix it.”

She added, “The only political victories that matter these days are symbolic – attacking your opponents on cable news or social media. Compromise is a dirty word. We’ve arrived at that crossroad, and we chose anger and division. I believe in my approach. But it’s not what America wants right now.”

Arizona Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego will face off against Kari Lake, who lost the governor race in 2022.

The Arizona Senate has always been a toss up.

It’s still a toss up according to Cook Political Report.

Gallego is no Sinema:

But unlike Sinema, who in 2018 became the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Arizona in 30 years by running as a Blue Dog, Gallego is an unabashed progressive. Gallego made clear he would primary Sinema before she left the Democratic Party in December 2022 and is also to the left of the state’s other Democratic senator, Mark Kelly, who won races in both 2020 and 2022 by winning over independents and moderate Republicans. Gallego, a Marine veteran who would be the state’s first Hispanic senator, currently represents a ninth of the state and is less well-defined statewide than Lake.

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Comments

healthguyfsu | March 5, 2024 at 7:03 pm

“I’m not going to lie. I’ll miss Sinema and Manchin. I don’t always agree with them, but they were never scared to stand up to Democrats and not toe the party line.”

I would alter this statement to say “sometimes not scared” instead of “never scared”.

Actually, like Trump 2020 Karl won

Kari Lake has a LOT of work to do. She was trailing in the 3-way race and in all the polls that I’ve seen where they poll Lake vs. Gallego, she loses by an even larger margin. I’m not sure what’s driving voter hesitancy, if it’s the McCain family feud or something else. I think it’s particularly troubling for Lake that while she’s failing to launch, Trump seems to be doing reasonably well in AZ polling…often in the exact same poll.

For instance, in the most recent Emerson poll in AZ, Trump is winning by three or four points (at 47%, I think) while Lake is stuck at 30% in a 3-way race and 39% in a 2-way race (w/Gallego at 47%). Lake still has time. But, these aren’t good signs.

https://emersoncollegepolling.com/arizona-2024-poll-trump-46-biden-43/

“Sen. Kyrsten Sinema will not seek reelection in November”

Cindy McCain made her an offer she couldn’t refuse.

I don’t know who it could possibly be, but someone needs to speak up every time anyone says “our democracy” and remind them: “NO! It’s a REPUBLIC! You obviously don’t know what you’re talking about.”

    Milhouse in reply to navyvet. | March 6, 2024 at 2:37 am

    No. It’s a democracy and a republic.

      stephenwinburn in reply to Milhouse. | March 6, 2024 at 8:26 am

      To Milhouse’s point. It is a Constitutional Republic. As designed, it is a local democracy, and was intended to be a Republic at the Federal level. A good bit of that was screwed up when we began to elect Senators through popular vote, making them into a smaller House of Representative with different rules. We have screwed up a number of other things along the way, but locally, we are a democracy. Democracy on a large scale is only chaos and the many crushing the few-a severe problem now that the freeloaders know they can vote for democrats who will buy their votes.

      Azathoth in reply to Milhouse. | March 6, 2024 at 8:46 am

      No. It’s a Constitutional Representative Republic.

      It is not democracy at all. It uses democratic methods as a way to choose some of the representatives.

      Stop getting all your ‘facts’ from Vox, Democrat.

        Danny in reply to Azathoth. | March 6, 2024 at 9:24 am

        The way the Athenians used the term Democracy Athens has been the only Democracy to exist.

        However the way we use the term Democracy we are a set of 50 Democracies bound up together into one Republic.

        Your governor, your Lt. Governor, your State Senators, your AG are elected by majorities, the ruling by the supreme court that eliminated a states ability to split state senate districts by geography instead of population is at this point a hundred years old (from the ruling “it is not the rocks rivers and trees that send a man to your state senate but the voters”).

        At a federal level we are not a Democracy, if your state does something inconsistent with Democracy Supreme Court will smack it down.

        Milhouse in reply to Azathoth. | March 11, 2024 at 1:45 am

        And the evil, demonic Azathoth shows again what a filthy liar he is. Vox?! Who mentioned Vox? Only your own filthy imagination. Did you even bother reading the article I linked? Of course not.

        Do you think you know more about our constitution than Eugene Volokh does?!

      henrybowman in reply to Milhouse. | March 6, 2024 at 12:59 pm

      And yet my floors are still dull, and my pudding is naked.

D’s looked at the polls, seen that Lake does better in a 3 way race, and pressured Sinema to bow out.

As usual, she’s totally “scared” to actually stand up to D’s. Manchin always was also.

They both say things outside of Congress that’s not in line with the Party’s latest propaganda, but when it came time to vote they always caved.

I remember watching Manchin applaud at a SOTU and then stop, cower, and sit down just because Schumer looked at him.

So brave.

    gonzotx in reply to Aarradin. | March 5, 2024 at 11:33 pm

    I remember that.. but he did almost punch the little environmentalist, cough , cough, till he was stopped

    God I would have paid to see that

    It was fun seeing his assistant throw the punk to the ground however lol

Neither “independent” will be missed. Better to get some fresh blood. Will the election be on the up and up?

Why no open thread for the election? It’s as if it’s not happening. Was looking at Vermont so far. Could be a squeaker, relatively speaking.

Biden is to go on the offensive. It will be interesting how that turns out.

    Why? Cause it’s Trump and not DeSantis

    She will be missed because Karri Lake is by far the most likely to lose. She JUST lost a statewide election under very favorable circumstances to her, and instead of trying to mend bridges with the people she insulted and told to vote for the other side she pretended to win.

    You know like governor Stacey Abrams.

    Biden may lose due to his unpopularity. I would much rather have gotten a conservative who cares about winning than a self aggrandizing idiot to run in Arizona.

AF_Chief_Master_Sgt | March 5, 2024 at 9:40 pm

It’s telling that in today’s political climate, two radical left wingers using standards from 20 years ago are now considered “moderate!”

She talked a good game like Manchin but when it came down to critical votes on bills and nominees she voted the dem party line nearly every time.

Kari didn’t lose the governors race, it was stolen by the McCain republicans/dems

Clearly

    Danny in reply to gonzotx. | March 6, 2024 at 9:14 am

    No she lost and the reason was she told people who liked McCain (A man who easily won re-election EVERY single time he ran) NOT TO VOTE FOR HER.

    Get it through your head voters are human beings, insult them and tell them to vote for the other side and guess what? THEY WILL.

E Howard Hunt | March 6, 2024 at 7:39 am

Will this sapphite retire to the Isle of Lesbo?

Sinema/Cheney 2024!