Kyrsten Sinema Branded ‘Traitor’ as Democrats Rage Over Defection

Senator Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) has been accused of turning her back on her party after she announced she would quit the Democrats and register as an independent.

Explaining her decision in an op-ed for the Arizona Republic, she wrote: “I have never fit perfectly in either national party” adding that leaving the Democratic Party “won’t change my work in the Senate.”

She tweeted a video in which she said she wanted to “reject party politics” and remove herself from the “broken partisan system in Washington.”

U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) at the Capitol Building on November 29, 2022 in Washington, DC. She has announced that she will change her party affiliation from Democrat to independent. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

But Jordan Zakarin, from media outlet More Perfect Us, tweeted that she had been “very happy to let the progressive grassroots in Arizona work their asses off to get her elected to the Senate,” adding that “after four years of refusing to meet with them, she’s finally slamming the door in their faces.”

Exavier Pope, a lawyer and entrepreneur, tweeted that her move “ensures she continues to get attention. This isn’t about Washington. This is about Sinema trying to retain some power in her seat.”

Meanwhile, Twitter user Enrich12 wrote that Sinema had “ran as a Democrat, voted as a Republican, and now switched parties to Independent. @SenatorSinema is a traitor. She fooled the people of Arizona.”

“You gotta be wondering what Joe Manchin is thinking this morning,” tweeted NBC host Mehdi Hasan, referring to the West Virginia senator who is also famed for not toeing the Democrats’ party line.

“I have always believed that Sinema was worse than Manchin and so her pulling this move before Manchin did is a vindication of that view,” Hasan added.

Democrats have been celebrating Tuesday’s victory by Raphael Warnock (D-GA) in the mid-term run-off in Georgia against Republican candidate Herschel Walker, which tipped Congress’s upper house 51-49 in their favor. This followed two years of relying on Vice President Kamala Harris to use her casting vote to break the previously split Senate.

But Sinema’s move to quit the Democrats is unlikely to change the power balance in the next Senate, CNN reported. The party has two other independents who caucus with it, Sens. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Angus King (D-ME).

Sinema has not specified she would do the same, although she told the network she will “hopefully serve on the same committees I’ve been serving on.”

This is a signal that she does not plan to upend the Senate composition, CNN reported, since Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer controls committee rosters for Democrats.

When contacted for comment, Sinema’s spokeswoman Hannah Hurley referred Newsweek to the senator’s op-ed in the Arizona Republic and tweeted video. “As she has made clear in her interviews, she intends to maintain her committee assignments from the Democratic majority,” Hurley said, adding: “she has never and will not now attend caucus meetings.”

Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment.