Senator Kyrsten Sinema, the Independent U.S. Senator from Arizona, has announced that she will not seek re-election in 2024. Sinema, who was elected as a Democrat in 2018, switched her Party affiliation to become an Independent in December of 2022.
The race now will most likely be between Kari Lake, an ally of former President Donald Trump, and leading Democrat candidate Rep. Ruben Gallego.
NBC News reports on this shocking update,
Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema announced Tuesday that she will not run for re-election this year, leaving the Senate after one term that saw her paint Arizona blue, leave the Democratic Party and play a key role in numerous legislative negotiations in a tightly divided Senate.
“I will leave the Senate at the end of this year,” Sinema said in a video posted on her X account.
Sinema’s decision paves the way for a tough and expensive fight for her seat — though it will be more straightforward than the messy three-way contest she would have prompted by staying in. The leading Republican, 2022 gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, and the leading Democrat, Rep. Ruben Gallego, are already running hard to replace Sinema.
Sinema’s decision comes as her prospects of victory appeared dim if she ran. Polling on the race is sparse, but surveys have consistently shown Sinema in third place in a hypothetical three-way contest featuring Gallego and Lake. It was unclear which candidate she would have pulled more support from.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/independent-sen-kyrsten-sinema-will-not-run-re-election-arizona-rcna124499
Sinema will be departing the Senate at the end of the year. Her exit from the Senate race will undoubtedly strengthen the Democrat vote in Arizona in November, possibly making Kari Lake’s path to victory just a bit more narrow.
The most recent polls from Rasmussen, dated February 21-26, have Lake ahead of Gallego for the general election by a margin of 3-4 points. In those same polls, Sinema garners about 21% of the vote.
For a Senate race that is surely going to be one of the more contested contests in the Country in the 2024 Election, 21% of the electorate just became available.
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