who is the senator who left the Democrats and got Biden- Corriere.it in trouble

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
NEW YORK — Senator from Arizona Christmas cinema been nicknamed the riddle. Surely she doesn’t mind.

Sinema has announced that he is leaving the democratic party to become independent: news that could spoil the party for the Democrats, who have just won the majority of 51 seats in the Senate thanks to the victory of Raphael Warnock in Georgia? The White House is not worriedsince Sinema has almost always voted with the democratic party and even now she maintains in interviews that nothing will change in my values ​​and my behavior (more to the left than many republicans on social issues such as abortion and further right than many Democrats on tax issues) and will keep his role in two committees in the Senate.

When asked for CNN and the Politico site if Democrats should consider still having a majority of 51 seats (which already includes two independents, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine), the senator avoided answering: These these are things that people in Washington DC care about. Arizona voters care that I align with their values.

She added that the two parties, Democrat and Republican, are increasingly being asked to vote without thinking and that she has never felt comfortable being so constrained. One of the things that could change – someone says – that not necessarily feel obligated to endorse Joe Biden if he runs for president in 2024.

In reality, there is very little that is enigmatic about his choice. Sinema rides a strong trend in the country (a third of voters in Arizona and 31% nationally are registered as independents): they were crucial in the last midterm elections, where in his state there were many split ticker voters, who voted unevenly along party lines). an electorate it does not have a true leader, a role that somehow the senator is applying to assume.

His choice also seems to be linked to re-election prospects in two years in Arizona: he will avoid having to compete in the primary with a more progressive candidate. Furthermore, a move in line with his curriculum (youth in the Greens) and even with his look which is clearly detached from that of his colleagues: colorful, lacy, skintight dresses, hot pink wigs and go-go boots.

A graduate in law, a master’s degree in social studies and then a doctorate, Sinema was a deputy before being a senator. In 2013, at the age of 37, she was the first American congresswoman to compete in the Ironman thriatlon (38 kilometers swim, 180 kilometers, followed by a marathon of 41 kilometers completed in 15 hours, 12 minutes and 34 seconds), then in 2018 she was the first openly bisexual senator and the second to identify as LGBTQ+ after Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.

Now 46, he has built his career working with both Democrats and Republicans, a lesson learned from his hero John McCain. You have a good relationship with both President Joe Biden and right-wing Senate leader Mitch McConnell, who invited you to Kentucky and called you one of the most effective first-term senators I’ve ever seen in my life. .

Over the past two years, she has earned a key role, along with West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, in the passage of laws on infrastructure, on weapons, on gay marriage, in the Senate split in half. If Sinema is involved, that law will probably pass, some say.

Instead, she was criticized by more progressives in the Democratic party who accused her of filibustering, for pushing for reductions in social spending or opposing tax increases and ending the filibuster rule.

Many Democrats are convinced that deep down she has always been and will continue to be a centrist: she voted for the impeachment of Donald Trump, opposed the Supreme Court justice he nominated Amy Coney Barrett and supported that of Ketanji Brown Jackson, nominated by Biden.

She says she doesn’t care what they think: after the announcement on the transition from Democrat to independent, she explained that she would do what she does every Friday morning: a good run.