Would Sinema Have Joined The GOP If Walker Had Beaten Warnock in Georgia?

A great deal has been said about Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema's decision to leave the Democrats to sit as an independent.

What has not been discussed much is the timing of her decision. After all, Sinema publicly announced her decision scarcely 60 hours after Raphael Warnock had been re-elected in Georgia.

Under the circumstances and the closeness of that election it is reasonable to ask what would Sinema have done had Herschel Walker prevailed. To be precise, would Sinema have instead announced she was defecting to the GOP? This move would have given Republicans a majority in the Senate and restored Mitch McConnell as majority leader and given the GOP control over both legislative branches grinding the agenda of the Biden Administration to a complete halt.

While there are those who argue that her voting record would have made it been infeasible for her to run as a Republican. Although she twice voted to impeach Trump and voted in favor of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, I think Republicans would have been prepared to overlook this had she restored their majority thus preventing any further Democratic judicial confirmations and would have preferred her over Kari Lake relitigating the 2020 election and the 2022 gubernatorial election.

Of course, this is entirely speculation on my part. But I cannot help but think that someone as opportunistic as Sinema didn't have a Plan B in the event Warnock lost his seat in Georgia. Surely she would have written a different piece of boilerplate than she did today. Some politicians are genuine public servants. She isn't. Kyrsten Sinema is for Kyrsten Sinema. To be sure, she has been treated unkindly but she has demonstrated herself equally contemptuous of her voters. 

While Sinema claims this won't change things much it is a telltale sign of more mischief to come. All President Biden and Senate Democrats can do is work around it and then do everything they can to defeat her in 2024 with someone who is more representative of their values.