Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who announced last week that she’ll leave the Democratic Party to register as an Independent, said that she’s making the jump in order “to not be tethered” by partisanship.
“I know this is really hard for lots of folks, especially in D.C., but what’s important to me is to not be — to not be tethered by the partisanship that dominates politics today. And I think Americans are tired of it. I think Arizonans are tired of it,” Sinema told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview aired Sunday on “State of the Union.”
Tapper pressed Sinema on her voting record, noting that her position on issues including abortion rights, LGBTQ rights, environmentalism and support for immigrants “sounds like a Democrat.”
The Arizona senator said she’s still interested in those issues, but said wants “to work on them in a way that is productive, that is free from the trappings” of the political system.
“The national political parties have pulled our politics farther to the edges than I have ever seen. I want to remove some of that — kind of that poison from our politics. I want to get back to actually just working on the issues, working together to try and solve these challenges,” Sinema said.
Sinema’s party switch comes shortly after Democrats celebrated another Senate win in Georgia, with Sen. Raphael Warnock’s (D) victory over Republican challenger Herschel Walker pushing the party to a slim 51-49 majority in the upper chamber.
“I’ve never fit neatly into any party box. I’ve never really tried. I don’t want to,” Sinema, who’s up for reelection in 2024, said in making the announcement of her switch in party affiliation.
Independent Sens. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) and Angus King (Maine) both caucus with Senate Democrats, but Sinema declined to say whether she’ll do the same.