Senator Kyrsten Sinema Leaves the Democrats

While the Democrats lost their majority in the House of Representatives in the midterm elections, things went really well for Democrats in the Senate.  Every Democrat up for election won, and Republican incumbent Mehmet Oz lost to John Fetterman, a democrat.  That meant that the democrats would have a 51-49 majority in the Senate.  Previously, the democrats held exactly half the seats in the Senate, with Vice President Harris casting the tiebreaker vote.  However, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia often impeded and stopped outright key legislation.  Since the democrats got a new seat, Manchin voting against laws the democrats were trying to pass would not matter.

 At least, that’s how it would have been if Kyrsten Sinema did not leave the Democratic Party. Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona was a democrat though she often opposed democratic legislation. Still, after the gain received in the midterm elections, she became a member of the Independent party.  There are 3 political parties in the Senate.  There are the Republicans, the Democrats, and the Independents. There used to be 50 Republicans, 48 Democrats, and 2 Independents who always voted with the Democrats, so combined with the Vice President tiebreaker, the Democrats got the majority.  With Kyrsten Sinema leaving, it puts the Democratic majority back to 50-50, with Kyrsten Sinema possibly voting against fundamental laws.  This alone would not stop them from getting passed, but Joe Manchin often votes against Democratic legislation.  This could mean that, with Manchin and Sinema likely voting against the legislation, lots of important laws on President Biden’s agenda will not be passed.  Sinema said “Like a lot of Arizonans, I have never fit perfectly in either national party”, and does not have strictly democratic or republican views and beliefs. Sinema also said that she would not start voting with the republicans on everything.  However, this decision has stopped the democrats from making progress in their senate majority.

 When interviewed about Kyrsten Sinema’s decision, Ethan Ziv of class 704 said that “In America, we all have our right to our own opinion, and while I respect Kyrsten Sinema’s decision to leave the Democratic party, I don’t like it when people are not democrats, and I have a right to that opinion.”.  Another student, Pepper Lu of class 802, said that “She definitely has some Republican views,  but to be a democrat at the start, she must share some of their views.”. Sinema’s decision has led to controversy and Senator Sinema’s vote could be a tiebreaker for important laws.  Overall, what political leaning Senator Sinema is could decide what laws get passed in the next 2 years.