Dean Phillips Out!

The party of one.

The winners and losers of 2024.

Did you know Marianne Williamson unsuspended her campaign? 

Yet, she is already eliminated despite her return to the presidential race. 

Anyway, Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) finally ended his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Super Tuesday proved to be a very good night for President Joe Biden. 

He carried every state including Phillips' home state of Minnesota.

Phillips announced on social media he will suspend his presidential run and endorsed Biden going into the general against presumptive Republican nominee Donald J. Trump.

Phillips told WCCO Radio in Minneapolis that he was endorsing Biden, saying “there is only one choice” in an expected fall matchup with Republican Donald Trump.

In 2011, I hosted then VP Biden at my home. Most notable was his empathy and kindness to my daughters and the catering staff, with whom he sat and had ice cream (surprise-surprise). His decency and wisdom were rarities in politics then, and even more so today.

Over a decade… pic.twitter.com/e3mGNU7u2C

— Dean Phillips (@deanbphillips) March 6, 2024

Phillips, a 55-year-old multimillionaire who is among the richest members of Congress, built his White House bid around calls for a new generation of Democratic leadership while spending freely from his personal fortune. But the little-known congressman ultimately failed to resonate with the party’s voters.

Phillips was the only elected Democrat to challenge Biden for the presidency. Phillips’ failure to gain traction is further proof that Democratic voters are behind the 81-year-old Biden even if many have misgivings about his age or his reelection prospects.

Biden called Phillips on Wednesday after the congressman ended his candidacy, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversation.

The president has long cast himself as uniquely qualified to beat Trump again, and Biden’s reelection campaign largely ignored Phillips except to point out that the congressman voted with the administration nearly 100% of the time in Congress.

And, Jason Palmer.

— Dean Phillips (@deanbphillips) March 6, 2024

Phillips often argued Biden was too old to serve a second term. But in a social media post Wednesday, Phillips noted that Biden had once visited his home while Biden was vice president and that his “decency and wisdom were rarities in politics then, and even more so today.”

Phillips said in the WCCO interview that while he thinks Biden “is at a stage in life where his capacities are diminished, he is still a man of competency and decency and integrity. And the alternative, Donald Trump is a very dangerous, dangerous man.”

Phillips back Biden and will not seek a No Labels bid.

The congressman’s endorsement of Biden foreclosed the prospects of third-party challenge by Phillips on a potential No Labels ticket. But he said he hopes Nikki Haley, the last major Trump rival on the Republican side, who suspended her campaign Wednesday, considers an independent bid. Phillips said that would draw votes away from Trump and help Biden’s reelection chances, while other independents in the race would just peel off Biden votes and aid Trump.

“I believe wholeheartedly, effusively, there is only one choice, and that is Joe Biden. ... At the end of the day, this is really a very stark choice and a very simple contrast,” Phillips said.

A centerpiece of Phillips’ campaign to upset Biden was in New Hampshire, where he campaigned hard, hoping to capitalize on state Democrats’ frustration over a new plan by the Democratic National Committee, championed by Biden, reordering the party’s 2024 presidential primary calendar by leading off with South Carolina on Feb. 3.

But instead of pulling off a New Hampshire surprise, Phillips finished a distant second in the state’s unsanctioned primary, behind a write-in campaign in which Democrats voted for Biden despite his name not appearing on the ballot.

After that defeat, Phillips pressed on to South Carolina and the primary’s formal start. But the DNC didn’t schedule any primary debates, and some states’ Democratic parties, including North Carolina and Florida, are not even planning to hold primaries — making it even more difficult to challenge the sitting president. Phillips lost South Carolina and every other state in which he competed.

Before Minnesota’s primary on Super Tuesday, hardly any of nearly two dozen Democratic voters interviewed in Phillips’ congressional district mentioned his presidential campaign. James Calderaro of Hopkins knew Phillips was a candidate but dismissed him as “a distraction.” Calderaro and others said they were backing Biden for the best chance of stopping Trump in November.

Phillips finished a distant third in the Minnesota primary with about 8% of the vote, compared with about 19% for “uncommitted” and 71% for Biden.

Phillips has already announced he’s not seeking reelection in his suburban Minneapolis congressional district. He is heir to his stepfather’s Phillips Distilling Co. empire and served as that company’s president, but he also ran the gelato maker Talenti. His grandmother was Pauline Phillips, better known as the advice columnist Dear Abby.

Driving a gelato truck helped Phillips win his first House campaign in 2018, when he unseated five-term Republican Erik Paulsen. While Phillips’ district in mostly affluent greater Minneapolis has become more Democratic-leaning, he stressed that he is a moderate focused on his suburban constituents.

While running for president, however, Phillips moved further to the left, endorsing fully government-funded health care through “Medicare for All.”

Haley Out!

The last one to take on Trump is out.

The winners and losers of 2024.

Former U.N. Ambassador and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley will suspend her campaign. After a disappointing series of losses to former president Donald J. Trump, the last Republican in the race is going to end her bid for president.

Thus, Trump will be Republican nominee designate.

Some factors to why she couldn't win.

1. She is a woman.

2. She is a woman of color. Trump's supporters are racist.

3. She was considered a traitor because she went up against her old boss.

4. She was too damn cocky.

5. She was betrayed by Gov. Henry McMaster, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC).

6. The RNC had their thumb on the scale for Trump. They allowed him to get away with not participating in debates. Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie, Asa Hutchinson, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and Larry Elder grumbled about how the rules were unfair and how they allowed Trump to bypass rules.

So Haley will either endorse Trump or choose to stay out of it. 

Republicans also forced Ronna McDaniel out. The Republican chairwoman has now resigned and it sets up a competitive race for who will lead the party and how the Republican National Convention will be set in Milwaukee. Trump has endorsed North Carolina Republican chairman Michael Whatley and his daughter in law Lara Trump to lead the Republican Party.

Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie also made it clear: Haley didn't have the balls to take on Trump. She raised her hand towards supporting Trump even if he was convicted of a crime. The former president used it to his advantage.

Trump did a whisper campaign. He criticized her race, her loyalty to the Republican Party, her husband's military service, her governorship and her being a woman.

Three people with direct knowledge who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly confirmed Haley’s decision ahead of an announcement by her scheduled for Wednesday morning.

Haley is not planning to endorse Trump in her announcement, according to the people with knowledge of her plans. Instead, she is expected to encourage him to earn the support of the coalition of moderate Republicans and independent voters who supported her.

Haley, a former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador, was Trump’s first significant rival when she jumped into the race in February 2023. She spent the final phase of her campaign aggressively warning the GOP against embracing Trump, whom she argued was too consumed by chaos and personal grievance to defeat President Joe Biden in the general election.

Her departure clears Trump to focus solely on his likely rematch in November with Biden. The former president is on track to reach the necessary 1,215 delegates to clinch the Republican nomination later this month.

Haley’s defeat marks a painful, if predictable, blow to those voters, donors and Republican Party officials who opposed Trump and his fiery brand of “Make America Great Again” politics. She was especially popular among moderates and college-educated voters, constituencies that will likely play a pivotal role in the general election. It’s unclear whether Trump, who recently declared that Haley donors would be permanently banned from his movement, can ultimately unify a deeply divided party.

Trump on Tuesday night declared that the GOP was united behind him, but in a statement shortly afterward, Haley spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said, “Unity is not achieved by simply claiming, ‘We’re united.’”

Haley was Trump's UN Ambassador from 2017 until 2019.

“Today, in state after state, there remains a large block of Republican primary voters who are expressing deep concerns about Donald Trump,” Perez-Cubas said. “That is not the unity our party needs for success. Addressing those voters’ concerns will make the Republican Party and America better.”

Haley leaves the 2024 presidential contest having made history as the first woman to win a Republican primary. She beat Trump in the District of Columbia on Sunday and Vermont on Tuesday.

She had insisted she would stay in the race through Super Tuesday and crossed the country campaigning in states holding Republican contests. Ultimately, she was unable to knock Trump off his glide path to a third straight nomination.

Haley’s allies note that she exceeded most of the political world’s expectations by making it as far as she did.

She had initially ruled out running against Trump in 2024. But she changed her mind and ended up launching her bid three months after he did, citing among other things the country’s economic troubles and the need for “generational change.” Haley, 52, later called for competency tests for politicians over the age of 75 — a knock on both Trump, who is 77, and President Joe Biden, who is 81.

Her candidacy was slow to attract donors and support, but she ultimately outlasted all of her other GOP rivals, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Scott, her fellow South Carolinian whom she appointed to the Senate in 2012. And the money flowed in until the very end. Her campaign said it raised more than $12 million in February alone.

She gained popularity with many Republican donors, independent voters and the so-called “Never Trump” crowd, even though she criticized the criminal cases against him as politically motivated and pledged that, if president, she would pardon him if he were convicted in federal court.

As the field consolidated, she and DeSantis battled it out through the early-voting states for a distant second to Trump. The two went after each other in debates, ads and interviews, often more directly than they went after Trump.

The campaign’s focus on foreign policy following Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel in October tilted the campaign into Haley’s wheelhouse, giving her an opportunity to showcase her experience from the U.N., tying the war to her conservative domestic priorities and arguing that both Israel and the U.S. could be made vulnerable by what she called “distractions.”

Haley was slow to criticize her former boss directly.

As she campaigned across early states, Haley often complimented some of Trump’s foreign policy achievements but gradually inserted more critiques into her campaign speeches. She argued Trump’s hyperfocus on trade with China led him to ignore security threats posed by a major U.S. rival. She warned that weak support for Ukraine would “only encourage” China to invade Taiwan, a viewpoint shared by several of her GOP rivals, even as many Republican voters questioned whether the U.S. should send aid to Ukraine.

In November, Haley — an accountant who had consistently touted her lean campaign — won the backing of the political arm of the powerful Koch network. AFP Action blasted early-state voters with mailers and door-knockers, committing its nationwide coalition of activists and virtually unlimited funds to helping Haley defeat Trump.

Judge Judy couldn't save Nikki Haley.

With Trump refusing to participate in primary debates, Haley went head-to-head with DeSantis in a single debate, displaying a combative style that seemed to sit poorly with even those committed to support her in the Iowa caucuses. She would finish third.

Haley’s name emerged as a possible running mate for Trump, with the former president reportedly asking allies what they thought of adding her to his possible ticket. As Haley appeared to gain ground, some of Trump’s backers worked to tamp down the notion.

While Haley initially notably declined to rule out the possibility, she said while campaigning in New Hampshire in January that serving as “anybody’s vice president” is “off the table.”

After DeSantis exited the campaign following Trump’s record-setting win in the Iowa caucuses, Haley hoped that New Hampshire voters would feel so strongly about keeping the former president away from the White House that they would turn out to support her in large numbers.

“America does not do coronations,” Haley said at a VFW hall in Franklin on the eve of the New Hampshire primary. “Let’s show all of the media class and the political class that we’ve got a different plan in mind, and let’s show the country what we can do.”

But she would lose New Hampshire and then refused to participate in Nevada’s caucuses, arguing the state’s rules strongly favored Trump. She instead ran in the state’s primary, which didn’t count for any delegates for the nomination. She still finished a distant second to “ none of these candidates,” an option Nevada offers to voters dissatisfied with their choices and used by many Trump supporters to oppose her.

She had long vowed to win South Carolina but backed off of that pledge as the primary drew nearer. She crisscrossed the state that twice elected her governor on a bus tour, holding smaller events than Trump’s less frequent rallies and suggesting she was better equipped to beat Biden than him.

She lost South Carolina by 20 points and Michigan three days later by 40. The Koch brothers’ AFP Action announced after her South Carolina loss that it would stop organizing for her.

But by staying in the campaign, Haley drew enough support from suburbanites and college-educated voters to highlight Trump’s apparent weaknesses with those groups.

Haley has made clear she doesn’t want to serve as Trump’s vice president or run on a third-party ticket arranged by the group No Labels. She leaves the race with an elevated national profile that could help her in a future presidential run.

In recent days, she backed off a pledge to endorse the eventual Republican nominee that was required of anyone participating in party debates.

“I think I’ll make what decision I want to make,” she told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Adam Schiff And Steve Garvey Face Off In California Senate Race!

California picks Adam Schiff and Steve Garvey to face off in competitive Senate race.

California Senate primary contenders advance. 

The winners and losers of 2024.

A nonpartisan blanket primary is a primary election in which all candidates for the same elected office run against each other at once, regardless of the political party. Partisan elections are, on the other hand, segregated by political party. Nonpartisan blanket primaries are slightly different from most other elections systems with two rounds/a runoff, also known as "jungle primaries" (such as the Louisiana primary), in a few ways. The first round of a nonpartisan blanket primary is officially the "primary." Round two is the "general election." Round two must be held, even if one candidate receives a majority in the first round.

In addition, there is no separate party nomination process for candidates before the first round. Also, political parties are not allowed to whittle down the field using their internal techniques (such as party primaries or conventions). It is entirely possible that multiple candidates of the same political party advance to the general election.

In most cases, two winners advance to the general election, in which case it is also called a top-two primary. If more than two candidates are selected for the general election, it may be known as a top-four primary or top-five primary. It is also known as a jungle primary.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Republican Steve Garvey will face off in the general election.

Schiff, the leading impeachment manager of former president Donald J. Trump's two impeachment trials and a pro-Israeli lawmaker is facing off against a former MLB player and pro-Israeli Republican. Garvey played for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1969 until 1982 and the San Diego Padres from 1983 until 1987. Garvey is a self admitted adulterer.

I have this race as LIKELY DEMOCRATIC.

Katie Porter gave up a crucial seat for her showboating.

Do not underestimate the race. A lot of young voters are turned off by lawmakers who are staunchly pro-Israel. To make this clear: A lot of people are dismissing the voters who oppose Israel but backed President Joe Biden in 2020. Biden is losing favor with young voters, Arab Americans, Black and Muslim voters.

The Pro Biden and Pro Trump influencers on X and Meta are calling people antisemitic because they are pro-Palestinian. They are dismissing claims that Israel is committed to genocide and is ignoring international law.

It is a waste of time to vote for the two of them. They both support Israel. California will nominate two old men who are not willing to challenge the status quo. 

Trump is the very definition of white privilege.

Biden is stuck on status quo.

Schiff and Garvey will be noise not results.

They are not willing to change course on policies. 

Schiff was booted from his committees by former lawmaker Kevin McCarthy thanks to Fox (in particular Sean "Softball" Hannity). Schiff was accused by Republicans of misleading Americans with propaganda. The Republicans were upset over Schiff pressing for Special Counsel Jack Smith to investigate Trump.

Barbara Lee is out. 

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) will not advance. They will be forced into retirement. They were considered noise. Porter was already struggling after some damaging reports about her behavior were leaked. She had a known temper and was accused of saying inappropriate things towards staff. Porter was painted as insufferable. The infamous book reading during the Speakership nomination proved her seriousness.

Lee, a longtime Black lawmaker was hammered by AIPAC. Lee told a story about being a Black teen who got pregnant and had her first abortion. Lee shared too much information.

Lee stood for women's rights, Black reparations and wanted to hold Israel accountable for its actions. She also made mistakes. Her district which includes Oakland was under fire for crime. It also lost the NFL Raiders to Las Vegas. The MLB A's will move to Las Vegas in 2025.

The NBA's Golden State Warriors moved to San Francisco. That also plagued Lee. They painted her as ineffective in getting things done. 

Laphonza Bulter getting sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris.

She was hoping Gavin Newsom appointed her. She was begging for attention. Lee was angry that he picked another Black woman over her.

Sen. Laphonza Bulter (D-CA) would have been a far better choice than Schiff. She made a commitment to not run and allowed the three Democrats duke it out for the nomination.

She is the first openly gay Black senator.

Butler was appointed to the Senate after Dianne Feinstein passed away. Feinstein was the oldest member of the Senate. Her health was in decline and progressive Democrats were upset she didn't retire or resign in the Trump years. Black progressives were feverishly pushing for Black representation since then California senator Kamala Harris was elected with Joe Biden. Harris is the first African American and woman become Vice President of the United States. 

Supa Toos Day!

The rematch.

Briefly.

It is a major primary day and Americans voted.

The results of the races on Super Tuesday are showing that President Joe Biden and former president Donald J. Trump will likely have a rematch come this fall.

Super Tuesday results show that the former president is carrying almost every state and has a firm grip on the party despite his legal and money woes.

Voters in 16 states and one U.S. territory head to the polls this Super Tuesday to cast ballots in the 2024 presidential primary race and other contests.

American Samoa and the following states will hear from voters: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia. Iowa will release the results of its mail-in Democratic caucus. 

Trump won Virginia, North Carolina, Texas, Maine, Alabama, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Colorado, Minnesota and Tennessee. He won Iowa, U.S. Virgin Islands, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Michigan, Missouri, Idaho and North Dakota.

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley only carried the Vermont and the  District of Columbia.

Republican presidential vote count progress

 TRUMP WIN

 HALEY

POLL CLOSE	STATE	EST. VOTES COUNTED
7 p.m.	Vermont	91%
	Virginia	95
7:30 p.m.	North Carolina	90
8 p.m.	Alabama	62
	Maine	71
	Massachusetts	53
	Oklahoma	98
	Tennessee	89
	Texas	60
8:30 p.m.	Arkansas	86
9 p.m.	Colorado	80
	Minnesota	74
10 p.m.	Utah	0
11 p.m.	California	0
12 a.m.	Alaska	0

AP’s estimate of ballots counted may shift as it is revised and updated based on incoming no data. It will not exceed 99% until election officials certify the final vote count, at which point it will go to 100%. States that hold caucuses or conduct all-mail elections will begin reporting results at the listed poll close time.

It appears to be over for Haley. She didn't end up winning many Super Tuesday states.

Biden easily won his despite the problems he has going into the general.

Democratic presidential vote count progress

 BIDEN WIN

POLL CLOSE	STATE	EST. VOTES COUNTED
5:30 p.m.	Iowa	97%
7 p.m.	Vermont	94
	Virginia	96
7:30 p.m.	North Carolina	91
8 p.m.	Alabama	74
	Maine	60
	Massachusetts	48
	Oklahoma	98
	Tennessee	78
	Texas	56
8:30 p.m.	Arkansas	91
9 p.m.	Colorado	79
	Minnesota	74
10 p.m.	Utah	59
11 p.m.	California	1

AP’s estimate of ballots counted may shift as it is revised and updated based on incoming no data. It will not exceed 99% until election officials certify the final vote count, at which point it will go to 100%. States that hold caucuses or conduct all-mail elections will begin reporting results at the listed poll close time.

Updated

Mar 5, 2024, 11:09 PM

Biden lost the Democratic caucuses on the U.S. territory of American Samoa to an obscure candidate in a surprising result that comes amid a string of Super Tuesday wins. 

The race was called Tuesday night by Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), who confirmed the results with the Democratic Party of American Samoa.

It is practically over for Dean Phillips. He has not won any state. The fool continues to push forward for the time being. It will be the end of the road soon for Haley and Phillips.

Sinema Out!

Bye Sinema.

The winners and losers of 2024.

The moderate senator announced she will not seek reelection. If one thing comes forth, you have two extremely annoying candidates running for the Arizona U.S. senate seat.

Elected in 2018, as the first woman and first openly bisexual senator in U.S. History. 

Before that she was elected as a Democrat. Previously she was a Green Party member who once heckled moderate Democrats for their support of the Iraq War. She began a transformation from a pink wig wearing progressive to a luxury loving corporate lobbyist.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) joins Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), Sen. Laphonza Bulter (D-CA), Sen. Mike Bruan (R-IN), Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) in retirement.

Sinema announced today she won’t be seeking reelection in November, meaning that Democratic Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego is set for a one-on-one race against Kari Lake, the likely Republican candidate.

“Because I choose civility, understanding, listening, working together to get stuff done, I will leave the Senate at the end of this year,” Sinema said in a video released by her office.

Lake, an election denier, said in a statement Tuesday that she and Sinema “may not agree on everything” but that she respected her for having “the courage to stand tall against the Far-Left in defense of the filibuster—despite the overwhelming pressure from the radicals in her party like Ruben Gallego who called on her to burn it all down.”

Sinema’s announcement comes after Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan bill to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border and deliver military aid to Ukraine and Israel — a deal that Sinema spent months negotiating. She had hoped it would be a signature achievement addressing one of Washington’s most intractable challenges as well as a powerful endorsement for her increasingly lonely view that cross-party dealmaking remains possible.

The infamous curtsy.

But in the end, Sinema’s border-security ambitions, and her career in Congress, were swallowed by the partisanship that has paralyzed Congress.

Sinema tried to build her Senate career in the mold of John McCain, the Arizona Republican whose willingness to buck the GOP infuriated his party’s base but endeared him to the state’s more moderate voters.

But she ended up hewing closer to the path of Jeff Flake, a former Arizona Republican senator who stood against then-President Donald Trump and became a pariah in in his party. Like Sinema, Flake declined to run for a second term after it became clear he could not survive a primary.

Flake endorsed Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 against Trump and was rewarded with an appointment by the president as ambassador to Turkey.

Sinema did not say what the future holds for her. But in her video message announcing her departure, she blamed the current political climate, saying “Americans still choose to retreat farther to their partisan corners.”

“It’s all or nothing,” she said. “The only political victories that matter these days are symbolic, attacking your opponents on cable news or social media.”

Her 2018 election marked the first time in a generation that Democrats had won a Senate seat from Arizona. It was the start of a period of ascendance for a Democrats in a state long dominated by the GOP.

In the Senate, she has been at the center of many of the biggest bipartisan congressional deals of Biden’s presidency, from an infrastructure package and a new gun law to protection for same-sex marriages.

She worked with members of both parties and she tried to find compromises, often preferring to hang out on the Republican side of the Senate floor to talk to GOP lawmakers. And she became known for diving into the details of policy, keeping spreadsheets and notebooks filled with detail during negotiations.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican who often sat at the negotiating table with Sinema, said she will miss her in the Senate. “I like people who are willing to reach across the aisle and get things done,” Collins said.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who has at times had a strained relationship with Sinema, said the Arizona senator “blazed a trail of accomplishments in the Senate.”

Sinema has been a reliable vote for Democrats on most nominations and legislation. But with the party hamstrung by razor-thin majorities, she refused to give her blessing to some of the progressive movement’s top priorities.

How to be a Karen.

Her support for maintaining the Senate’s filibuster rule, which requires 60 of 100 votes to pass most legislation instead of a simple majority, has been a particular source of frustration for progressives, who say it gives Republicans a veto despite the Democratic majority. Sinema says it forces the bipartisan compromise that most voters crave.

She single-handedly thwarted her party’s longtime goal of raising taxes on wealthy investors. The year before, she received nearly $1 million from private equity professionals, hedge fund managers and venture capitalists whose taxes would have increased under the plan.

At times, she’s seemed to take delight in serving as a roadblock.

She curtsied while casting a vote against raising the minimum wage. A few weeks later, with backlash to that vote still fresh, she posted to Instagram a photo of herself at brunch wearing a ring that said “f—- off.”

Progressives dialed up the pressure. Activists followed her into a bathroom seeking answers to their questions. Critics disrupted a wedding where she was a guest. The Rev. Jesse Jackson was among demonstrators arrested in a protest outside her Phoenix office.

Long before she faced reelection, donors threatened to walk away, and several groups began collecting money to support an eventual challenger.

In 2022, before she became an independent, leaders of the Arizona Democratic Party censured Sinema, a symbolic move that carried no practical impact but was emblematic of the rupture of her relationship with the party.

Sinema’s political career began as an anti-war activist. A self-described “Prada socialist,” she ran unsuccessfully for local office as a member of the Green Party. She was later elected to the Arizona Legislature as a Democrat and became a prolific spokesperson against Republican bills. Witty, pithy and accessible, she was on speed dial for journalists covering the Legislature.

But she came to believe that she could be more effective building bridges with the Republican majority than publicly excoriating them, she wrote in her 2009 book, “Unite and Conquer.” It was the start of her move toward the center and the persona that has formed her national brand.