“Not what America wants right now”: Kyrsten Sinema announces she’s retiring

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., announced on Tuesday that she will retire from the Senate rather than run for re-election after her party switch.

Sinema, who left the Democratic Party in 2022 after facing internal backlash for siding with the Senate GOP on the filibuster rule they used to kill major pieces of President Joe Biden’s agenda, announced her decision in a video posted to X/Twitter.

“Because I choose civility, understanding, listening, working together to get stuff done, I will leave the Senate at the end of this year,” Sinema said in the video.

“Compromise is a dirty word. We’ve arrived at that crossroad, and we chose anger and division. I believe in my approach, but it’s not what America wants right now,” she added.

Sinema faced the prospect of a three-way race after her party change but her announcement on Monday paves the way for a likely matchup between Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., and failed Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.

Sinema departs the Senate after just one term. In 2018, she became the first non-Republican to win an Arizona U.S. Senate seat since 1994.

Sinema played a key role as a top negotiator on the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act. But she faced unprecedented party backlash for backing the filibuster, which Republicans used to torpedo voting rights legislation and other key parts of Biden’s and the Democrats’ domestic agenda.