Former Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema questioned whether there is still room for moderates in the Democratic Party, saying it was made “clear” they didn’t want her there before she abandoned her Democratic affiliation and became an independent.
“The reason I left was because the party had decided they wanted to pursue a track of short-term gain and really sacrificing kind of longer-term issues around democracy, like the filibuster,” she said Saturday on “My View with Lara Trump.”
“And they very much made it clear that they didn’t really want me there. And, so, I left, which made me happy, and I think made them happy.
“But I’m not sure that there’s more room for others who are moderate or conservatives left there. … That’s unfortunate because the majority of Americans actually live in that moderate or fiscally conservative middle.”
Sinema, who was elected to both the House and Senate as a Democrat before becoming an independent, said she left the party after Democrats pursued what she characterized as immediate political gains at the expense of longer-term institutional concerns, specifically citing the filibuster.
She also contrasted the party she joined with the growing Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) movement, which she said is rooted in principles that do not reflect the “historic Democratic Party.”
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Sinema said when she entered Congress in 2012, she was a “blue dog,” a coalition she described as fiscally conservative and socially moderate. There were a lot more traditional liberal Democrats at that time, she said, stating that the DSA is something else entirely.
“It’s really rooted in tenets of socialism, which is not reflective of the historic Democratic Party. So, it’s hard to tell whether it’s a hijacking or whether it is actually the movement of the voters’ opinions,” she said.
Sinema added that primary elections tend to reflect the extreme ends of both parties, so it is too soon to tell whether the broader Democratic base is actually on board with the DSA.
Sinema’s comments come as democratic socialists have achieved historic wins across the country.
