( Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., will not run for re-election, shifting the dynamic in a closely watched race that pitted her against rising stars in both the Republican and Democratic parties.
“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 a video Tuesday.
The speculation that she would not seek re-election mounted in recent weeks, as she faced a narrow time frame to file petition signatures ahead of the April 1 deadline.
Her decision not to run now paves the way for a two-way race between Republican Kari Lake, a former TV news anchor who narrowly lost the 2022 gubernatorial race under suspicious circumstances, and Democrat Rep. Ruben Gallego.
The two are highly favored frontrunners for their respective parties, although both face competition in the state’s July 30 primary—including seven other challengers to Lake for the GOP nomination.
Sinema’s departure increases the odds that Lake, a darling of the MAGA movement, could reclaim one of the battleground state’s two Senate seats for Republicans after a series of disappointing election cycles flipped both in Democrats’ favor.
However, it remains unclear who will benefit most from any additional votes that the three-way race might have impacted since Sinema had incurred the wrath of many of her former Democrat supporters.
Sinema—who was elected as a Democrat but left the party in 2022, while continuing to caucus with them—has been seen as a bipartisan dealmaker and occasional maverick during her time in the Senate.
She famously joined retiring Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to side with Republicans in shooting down an attack on the filibuster, which would have expedited the legislative process while severely undermining any checks on the majority party’s power.
Most recently she led the charge on a border security bill that ended up getting shot down by Republicans, who doubted that the bill would do anything more than subsidize the Biden administration’s existing open-border policy.
Sinema’s 2018 election followed a competitive campaign against Republican Martha McSally—an Air Force veteran who later ended up serving a brief appointed term in the Senate to replace the late John McCain. However, McSally was narrowly defeated in 2020 by Democrat Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and husband of ex-Rep. Gabby Giffords.
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
