Who is Kyrsten Sinema? 5 things about the Arizona Senator’s independence – Hollywood Life +2023

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senator Kyrsten Sinema announced on Friday, December 9, that she was leaving the Democratic Party. After being a member of the Democratic Party for 18 years, Sinema, 46, announced that she was leaving the party and registering as an independent. Sinema explained her reasons for leaving in a guest comment Arizona Headquarters. “Everyday Americans are becoming increasingly disconnected from the rigid partisanship of national parties that has hardened in recent years. Pressure in both parties is marginalizing leaders, allowing the loudest, most extreme voices to set their respective parties’ priorities and expecting the rest of us to follow suit,” she said in part.

Sinema wrote that she believes loyalty to party lines influenced every politician’s electorate, and she pledged to work with centrist politicians on both sides of the aisle. “When politicians focus more on denying the opposition party a victory than on improving Americans’ lives, the people who lose are ordinary Americans,” she wrote. “That’s why I have joined the growing number of Arizonans who reject partisan politics in declaring my independence from Washington’s fractured partisan system.”

With Sinema’s departure from the Democratic Party, she is reducing her majority in the Senate. The party had a 51-49 lead over the Republicans. Now the numbers will be 50-49-1, but vice president Kamala Harris will still be the tiebreaker for all split decisions. Find out everything you need to know about Sinema here!

1. Sinema began her national political career as a member of the House of Representatives in 2013

Sinema’s career in politics actually goes back further than her time in Washington. She kept working Ralph Naders Presidential campaign in 2000 and ran for local offices early in the morning. She was elected to the Arizona Senate in 2010 before running for the House of Representatives in 2012. She won her election and entered the House of Representatives the following year, winning re-election campaigns in 2014 and 2016.

2. She was elected to the Senate in 2018

As incumbent Republican Senator Jeff Flakes announced that he would not run for re-election, Sinema announced that she would run for his Senate seat. She defeated Martha McSally, who later served in the House of Representatives and briefly in the Senate after being appointed by the Arizona Governor Doug Ducey after sen. John McCains Death. Sinema’s term ends in 2025 and she must be re-elected.

3. Before she left the Democrats, she was often called a centrist

As Sinema leaves the party, she will continue to hold committee positions through the Democratic Party, but it’s not clear if she will continue partying with the Democrats The New York Times. Though Sinema is a long-time Democrat, she has occasionally voted against her own party’s policies in the Senate. She opposed one of the party’s moves to raise taxes on high earners and businesses in October 2021, per Politically.

Because of her centrist approach, Sinema has garnered the favor of many of her peers across the aisle. In September, she even gave a speech at the University of Louisville’s McConnell Center and was introduced by the Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell himself, per time. “She’s what we lack in the Democratic Party today: a real moderate and a dealmaker,” McConnell said of her.

4. She is the first openly bisexual member of the Senate

Sinema’s elections to the House of Representatives and Senate were historic because she was the first bisexual woman to be elected to both bodies. She is also the second woman from the LGBTQ+ community to hold office in the House and Senate (the first was Tammy Baldwin). She made her public debut speaking out against a Republican official who insulted members of the LGBTQ community in 2005. “We’re just humans like everyone else who want and deserve respect,” she said loudly ell. When asked about it later, she replied, “Duh, I’m bisexual.”

5. She is an avid runner

Outside of politics, Sinema is quite athletic. She has regularly shown her love for running on her social media and has celebrated participating in various marathons including the 2022 Boston Marathon, of which she has posted some photos of her Instagram. She has also competed in Ironman triathlons and was the first member of Congress to complete one The world of the runner. She also expressed an interest in mountaineering and shared that she reached the summit of Kilimanjaro on Christmas Day 2013 Twitter.

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