Back to square one. By leaving the Democratic Party on Friday, Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema weakens Joe Biden at the parliamentary level, with a majority returning to 50 seats out of 100. If the political merit of the American president begins, who smiled after Better than expected, the decision to Sinema should not radically change the situation, with Congress divided between a Republican majority in the House and a Democratic majority in the Senate.
“I am declaring myself independent of Washington’s flawed partisan system,” the 46-year-old elected official announced in a video. Until the sensational announcement of this free spirit, the White House openly relished the results, admittedly much better than expected, of the Democrats in the very recent midterm elections. Wasn’t the American president the only one, after the illustrious Franklin Delano Roosevelt, to have won a seat in the Senate and government offices during this traditionally punishing election for the executive party?
I vote on a case-by-case basis
The White House was quick to temper the senator’s announcement. “We have every reason to believe we will continue to work” with Kyrsten Sinema, Joe Biden spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. “Kyrsten is independent, she’s the way she’s always been,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said, also trying to downplay her announcement.
The main interested party was careful not to say whether in the future they would side with the Democrats in the vote on the texts of the law. From 51 out of 100 seats in the Senate, the Democratic field dropped to 50, its level before the “midterm.”
However, knowing that the Republicans have 49. Kyrsten Sinema’s decision was also applauded in the conservative ranks who now hope to be able to count on her vote on the most contested texts: “I hope many others will be inspired”, launched the elected Lauren Boebert.
Difficult negotiations
On a strictly parliamentary level, the Arizona senator’s decision floods Joe Biden’s hopes of governing with more freedom for the rest of his mandate. But it doesn’t even radically change the situation.
The other house of Congress, the House of Representatives, switched to the Republican side after the midterm elections, already putting Joe Biden in a precarious position. And anyway, during the first two years of Biden’s term, Kyrsten Sinema had displayed a fierce political independence, often seen conversing with her Republican colleagues in the hemicycle.
During Joe Biden’s first two years in office, she regularly forced the White House into difficult negotiations with her. For example on this major electoral reform desired by the 80-year-old Democrat to protect the vote of minorities, and which the senator had torpedoed at the beginning of the year.
On a purely political level, his defection indisputably damages Joe Biden’s credit, at a time when he maintains suspense over a new presidential candidacy in 2024. It is not for lack of the president that he has given commitments to Kyrsten Sinema, with whom he has had many conversations, and that he had invited a year ago to speak on the lawns of the White House to celebrate the passage of a gigantic infrastructure program.
Also on Tuesday, while visiting a future factory in Arizona, Joe Biden had praised the senator, “tremendous defender of the people of Arizona and leader on many fundamental issues for this state”. However, Kyrsten Sinema’s decision to leave Joe Biden’s party is a risky bet: her mandate as senator expires in 2024 and the Democrats will be tempted to present another candidate against her.
