On Wednesday, Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema reached a new milestone in her turncoat Senate journey when she voted not to confirm U.S. District Judge S. Kato Crews to a Colorado seat. Luckily Crews received the support of every other Senate Democrat, a couple Republicans, and one independent not named Sinema and was confirmed by a 51-48 vote.
Sinema did not respond to queries about her vote, but considering that she reportedly voted in 95 of the Trump judicial nominees, it seems unlikely she found an honest criticism of Crews. It seems more likely that as we enter the election year, Sinema is looking to find splashy ways to prove that she is an “independent.” What she’s “independent” about is hard to divine. While her team has quietly crafted a plan to show donors how she could win reelection, she has made no formal announcement about her 2024 plans.
This was the first time Sinema has voted against one of Biden’s judicial nominations, but not her first time voting against the Democratic Party. Since ascending to the Senate after defeating Republican Martha McSally, Sinema has quickly become something of a monster, turning her back on so many of the constituents who voted her into office. In her first year in office she voted against her then Democratic colleagues 27.5% of the time—second only to West Virginia’s most corrupt official, Sen. Joe Manchin.
Sinema’s crowning achievement was the derision she earned when she voted to tank the $15 minimum wage amendment to the American Rescue Plan, and made a big show of licking Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s boots to do it. Less than a year later, Sinema was announcing to everybody she was no longer a Democrat but an independent. The people who were surprised or cared about the Arizona senator’s new affiliation at the time could be summed up as Kyrsten Sinema.
Sinema’s ever-increasing betrayal of her originally stated values has led virtually every former Democratic organization to endorse Rep. Ruben Gallego’s run for Senate in 2024. That Sinema’s lip service to centrism rings untrue and she has only proven to voters of all political persuasions that she is untrustworthy have also made her unpopular across the political spectrum.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Martha McSally as the incumbent in the Senate race she lost to Kyrsten Sinema. The race was for an open seat.
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