After she announced her departure from the Democratic Party to become an independent, Senator Bernie Sanders characterised Senator Kyrsten Sinema as a “corporate Democrat” who has “sabotaged” critical Democratic priorities along with West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin.
Asked by CNN’s State of the Union host Dana Bash on 11 December whether he believes the Arizona senator has the “guts” to take on powerful special interests, he said “no”.
“She doesn’t,” the Vermont progressive said. “She is a corporate Democrat who has, in fact, along with Senator Manchin, sabotaged enormously important legislation.”
Ms Sinema, an unapologetic moderate who has repeatedly frustrated members of her now-former party, was the first Arizona Democrat elected to the Senate in 30 years when she was first elected in 2018. She also is the state’s first-ever female senator and the first openly bisexual senator in US history.
Progressives and other Democratic officials have criticised the senator over her refusals to meet with constituents and her alleged deference to corporate interests at the expense of legislative agendas central to the party’s platform and President Joe Biden’s agenda.
She also was roundly criticised for voting against increasing a federal hourly minimum wage to $15 with a performative “thumbs down” on the Senate floor, as well as her ongoing opposition reforming or eliminating the legislative filibuster, the Senate’s 60-vote threshold for passing most bills, which derailed several attempts to pass voting rights protections.
Despite leaving the Democratic Party, Ms Sinema will keep her committee assignments and caucus with Senate Democrats, allowing the party to retain a slim majority control of the upper chamber of Congress. She has not indicated whether she intends to run for re-election in 2024.
“She has her reasons” for leaving the party, according to Mr Sanders, who is now one of three independent senators in the upper chamber, along with Ms Sinema and Maine’s Angus King.
“I suspect that it’s probably a lot to do with politics back in Arizona,” he said. “I think the Democrats there are not all that enthusiastic about somebody who helped sabotage some of the most important legislation that protects the interest of working families, voting rights and so forth.”
For now, “nothing much has changed in terms of the functioning of the US Senate,” he added.
“I would hope that with this new majority that Democrats will sit down and start fighting for the needs of ordinary Americans,” he said.
In a column for the Arizona Republic explaining her decision to leave, Ms Sinema said she believes “Americans are told that we have only two choices – Democrat or Republican – and that we must subscribe wholesale to policy views the parties hold, views that have been pulled further and further toward the extremes.”
“Most Arizonans believe this is a false choice, and when I ran for the US House and the Senate, I promised Arizonans something different,” she said.
In an interview with CNN, she said she “never fit neatly into any party box”.
“I’ve never really tried. I don’t want to,” she added. “Removing myself from the partisan structure – not only is it true to who I am and how I operate, I also think it’ll provide a place of belonging for many folks across the state and the country, who also are tired of the partisanship.”
