America’s most fashion-conscious Senator, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, made waves when news broke this morning of her departure from the Democrat Party. Long griped about and labeled a DINO (Democrat in Name Only) by left-wing activists in Arizona, Sinema certainly hears footsteps from the left and is getting ahead of an oncoming conundrum as her 2024 re-election campaign begins.
Right on cue, U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego (AZ-03) issued a statement suggesting he was poised to stand up a campaign for the 2024 race for her seat, which is now red hot. Gallego is a leftist radical who supports all the worst progressive causes and is all too comfortable in a 75-25 Democrat seat, which according to my friend Jeff Zink, his 2022 challenger, is shockingly (sarcasm) dripping in corruption.
What this is not is a piece crowning Sinema as a heroine doing the Lord’s work of beginning the demise of the party of darkness. Just as many mistakenly hailed Tulsi Gabbard as a key player of a new America First agenda, the same mistake will be made here, as it is often made with Joe Manchin. Make no mistake, Sinema is a leftist and ideologue who has voted in line with Joe Biden’s agenda 93% of time. That means in 14 of every 15 opportunities, she plays by the home team’s rules. I am not sure what the burr in her saddle is with the party apparatus itself, but it is clear she is no longer welcome and would be set up for failure in 2024, just as the feckless Jeff Flake was a non-starter for the GOP before the 2018 primary cycle even began.
Sinema’s departure from the Democrat Party is almost certainly the beginning of the end of her career as an elected official, but perhaps not as an appointed one. There are just two “independents” in the Senate, both caucusing with Democrats. They are Bernie Sanders, the perennial presidential pushover from Vermont, and Angus King, of Maine, a former Democrat.
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