Border Deal Is Kyrsten Sinema’s Toughest Test

“Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is working to pull together her biggest and most difficult bipartisan deal yet. It also could be her last,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The centrist Arizona senator, who still aligns with Democrats despite leaving the party a year ago, has helped shape major laws related to infrastructure, climate, same-sex marriage and guns. Now, she is one of a handful of negotiators working to change U.S. immigration law, which lawmakers of both parties acknowledge is politically fraught, maddeningly complicated—and newly urgent, because Republicans made it a condition for backing new aid to Ukraine.”

“This latest test of Sinema’s deal-making abilities comes just as the senator is also closing in on a deadline on whether to run for re-election, this time as an independent.”

Key takeaway: “Sinema declined to say whether she plans to run again. Asked by a reporter if a successful immigration deal would affect her decision on whether to seek re-election, she responded: ‘Dumb question.’”