Arizona Senator Kirsten Cinema has switched parties to become an independent, complicating the Democratic Party’s narrow control of the US Senate.
In a tweet Friday, Cinema declared that it was “declaring independence from Washington’s broken partisan system and officially registering as an independent in Arizona.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DY, was informed of plans for independent cinema on Thursday. In a statement on Friday, Schumer said she asked Cinema to keep her commission on the board.
“Kirsten is independent. She always is,” said Schumer. “I believe she is a good and capable Senator and I look forward to a productive session in the new Senate with a Democratic majority. We will use force to clear candidates without a sacking vote.”
By retaining commission duties, Cinema signaled its intention to continue caucuses with Democrats as independents, like Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sen. Angus King of Maine. A senior administration official told NBC News that the White House learned “mid-Thursday afternoon” of Cinema’s intentions to switch parties, and she plans to continue with her caucuses as usual.
If Cinema is still caucus with the Democrats, her switch to independents won’t change much how the party with the new 51-49 majority will perform. Outright dominance in the House makes it easier for Democrats to advance and issue subpoenas for President Joe Biden’s nominee.
Sen. Kirsten Cinema speaks at President Joe Biden’s signing ceremony of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on the South Lawn of the White House on Nov. 15, 2021, in Washington.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Cinema and West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin have been a wild card for the Democratic Party since 2020, when Democrats won narrow control of the Senate from Republicans. Neither senator is slated for re-election until 2024, and many expect Manchin to lean even more conservatively now that the midterm elections are over.
Even before leaving the party, cinema exerted its own influence on major Democratic bills. She specifically refused to raise corporate taxes as part of the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act passed earlier this year, opting instead for a minimum rate of 15%.
Senator Rafael Warnock’s re-election victory in Georgia’s Senate runoff on Tuesday gives Democrats another vote in the House, and a 51-49 majority in the Senate would give them a key vote. Party hopes grew that Cinema and Manchin’s hold on the bill would diminish. The floor had previously been split 50-50 by him, with Vice President Kamala Harris having a tie vote.
Cinema shared a party switch with a handful of news outlets, along with ET’s 6:01 a.m. tweet, bragging about the actions of “heretics” like the late Senator John McCain, his predecessor in Arizona. I am thinking. She has built her House career by working with the Republican Party as often as her previous party and said in an interview with Politico on Friday that changing her party affiliation would be logical for her. He said it was the next step.
“Registering as an independent is what I believe is the right thing for my state,” Cinema said in an interview.
The first openly bisexual senator at age 46, Cinema hasn’t always been a conservative Democrat as the past four years of legislation have shown. She has always maintained an independent stance and continues to defy Senate norms with her colorful outfits and wigs.
Cinema began his career as a Green Party activist with a focus on LGBTQ rights. He ran for the Democratic Party in 2004 and was elected to the House of Representatives in 2012.
Cinema used its familiarity with Republicans to become a major broker for several signature bills in Biden’s first term supporting issues such as infrastructure, guns and same-sex marriage. However, her views against raising taxes on the wealthy and changing filibuster rules were not supported by her former party.
She specifically refused to raise corporate taxes as part of the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act passed earlier this year, opting instead for a minimum rate of 15%.
Long before her announcement Friday morning, some Arizona Democrats were trying to find alternatives to getting her the primary. Groups like the Primary Cinema PAC blocked the Democratic Party from moving forward with exceptions to the Voting Rights Act because of her reluctance to reform the filibuster, causing the Central Committee of the Arizona Democratic Party to cast a vote of no confidence in the Senate. It emerged late last year after leading to a casting.
Rather than supporting a single candidate, the Primary Cinema PAC funds local Arizona groups to put pressure on Cinema and lay the groundwork for emerging candidates. Speculation had already begun that Arizona Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego would challenge her.
Cinema’s decision to change political parties would prevent her from facing a primary from the Left.
However, Cinema did not say in an interview with Politico whether he would seek a second term as a senator.