Majorities change
US Senator Sinema leaves Democrats
US Senator Kyrsten Sinema has announced her withdrawal from the Democratic Party and plans to become an independent politician in the near future. That might change the majority in the parliamentary chamber.
Kyrsten Sinema is an Arizona State Senator.
Party politics is too focused on harming the other side instead of doing work for US citizens, the 46-year-old wrote in an opinion piece in the Arizona Republic newspaper from her home state on Friday. “So I join the growing number of people in Arizona who reject partisan politics in declaring my independence from Washington’s broken party system.”
It initially remained unclear to what extent the voting behavior of the centrist Sinema, which had repeatedly blocked legislative projects of the Democrats in the past, might change. However, she said to the “Politico” website: “Nothing will change in my values and my behavior”. With Bernie Sanders and Angus King, there are already two independent senators, who, however, usually vote with the Democrats and are therefore attributed to them.
Just a few days ago, Democrat Rafael Warnock in the state of Georgia won a runoff election for the last open Senate seat following the US midterm elections. This gave the Democrats a 51-49 majority over the Republicans and more voting flexibility.
It remains unclear to what extent this dynamic might now change. Sinema is expected to retain ties with Democrats, including to retain committee seats. As an independent, however, it should be much easier for her to evade the factional discipline of the Democrats.
(SDA)
