Kyrsten Sinema will represent her state Arizona as an independent senator in the future.
(dpa)
The American Senator Kyrsten Sinema has announced her withdrawal from the Democratic Party and intends to appear as an independent politician in the US Senate. This could change the balance of power in the small chamber of Congress. Party politics is too focused on harming the other side instead of doing work for the citizens of the United States, 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, could 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 assigned to them.
Just a few days ago, Democrat Rafael Warnock won a runoff election in the state of Georgia for the last open Senate seat after the midterm elections. This gave the Democrats a 51-49 majority over the Republicans and more voting flexibility. It was initially unclear to what extent this dynamic could 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.