Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema has announced she is leaving the Democratic Party to sit as an independent, leaving her party with the same number of Senate seats they had before the midterm elections.

Revealing the news on Twitter along with a slick campaign-style video, Ms Sinema – whose economically conservative centrism has at times caused major problems for Joe Biden’s agenda – wrote that “In a natural extension of my service since I was first elected to Congress, I have joined the growing numbers of Arizonans who reject party politics by declaring my independence from the broken partisan system in Washington and formally registering as an Arizona Independent.