Former Mormon Kyrsten Sinema's road from green energy Democrat to rebel ... trends now It is customary for members of Congress to ride aboard Air Force One when the president visits their state. But when President Joe Biden made the trip to Phoenix Arizona on Tuesday, he was not accompanied by Kyrsten Sinema, the state's enigmatic senator. Not so Rep. Ruben Gallego. He made sure everyone knew he was aboard by tweeting a picture from the plane's boardroom - a useful profile boost for a man weighing a primary challenge to Sinema for the Democratic Party nomination. On Friday the reason for Sinema's absence became clear, she was leaving the party, killing off the prospect of what would have been a well-backed primary challenger. In so doing, she did what critics say she does best: She made a grand gesture in breaking with her party on a point of principle, while doing what was best for her own political future. And in a week when victory in Georgia meant Biden could celebrate having 51 seats in the Senate, she had made the story all about herself. Again. The first openly bisexual member of Congress, an Ironman triathlon competitor, who grew up in a Mormon family, and whose idiosyncratic clothes and hair won her a write-up on the style pages of the New York Times has a habit of defying expectations. Perhaps until now. Ironman triathlete, openly bisexual member of Congress, who moved from green politics to centrist Democrat to thorn in Joe Biden's legislative agenda, Kyrsten Sinema has long defied easy categorization. On Friday she entered the next phase of her political life, announcing she was quitting the Democratic Party to sit as an independent Fashion writers said she wore her maverick status on the outside - complete with collection of colorful wigs, including this lavender item she paired with agreen dress for a vote in Congress in May 2020 'She's extremely predictable if you look at it from her point but few people in D.C. think like her,' said political strategist Brad Bannon, who saw an astute calculation by a senator who knew the extra Democratic vote from the Georgia result meant she had lost some of her leverage. 'This move is an attempt to stay relevant in the Senate and position herself for her re-election campaign against a strong Democratic candidate who could have beat her in a primary.' Her middle class to living-in-a-gas-station to law school and Congress story has become well known since she was elected to the Senate in 2018. She was born in 1976 to a middle-class family in Tucson. Her father practiced law while mother Marilyn cared for the three children. But the family's fortunes changed and her father lost his job in the 1980s recession. Her parents divorced in 1983. Her mother remarried and took Sinema and the two other children to Florida, and it was there that the family squatted in an abandoned gas station from the ages of eight to 11, according to AZCentral. Sinema has spoken about her mother relying on food stamps when her parents got divorced and when her family was homeless. Her parents and step parents were Mormon and she grew up in the faith. Vice President Mike Pence administers the Senate oath of office to Kyrsten Sinema during a mock swearing in ceremony in the Old Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington Sinema pictured in October 2021 when she was locked in negotiations with the White House over Biden's $3 trillion spending plans to strengthen th esocial safety net and rebuild crumbling infrastructure In October, Sinema presided over the Senate in a denim vest jacket causing Twitter (inevitably) to explode, with posters wondering if she had mistaken Congress for the rodeo Things began looking up for her family in 1987 when her mother and stepfather secured work and they bought a house with the help of a church. Sinema won a scholarship to Brigham Young University, which is sponsored by the Church of Latter Day Saints. 'I have great respect for the LDS church – their commitment to family and taking care of each other is exemplary,' Sinema said years later. 'I just don’t believe the tenets of the faith that they believe.' She left the church after leaving university and quickly embraced political activism, running first as an independent Green Party candidate for the Arizona House, finishing last. She found success with the Democratic Party in 2004, beginning a rise that saw her sworn in as a U.S. senator in 2019. A slew of profiles followed, several zeroing in on the statements she made with clothes and her penchant for colorful wigs. Sinema's clothing often carried a message. She picked out rainbow sneakers for a news conference after the Senate advanced a bill to protect same-sex marriage last month The New York Times pointed out that she wore her reputation as a maverick on the outside. Tammy Haddad, co-founder of the White House Correspondents Weekend Insider, said: 'If the other members of Congress had paid any attention to her clothing at all they would have known she wasn’t going to just follow the party line.' Her Senate wardrobe includes lavender wigs, animal prints and thigh-high boots. Kyrsten Sinema presides over the Senate in a denim vest When she presided over the chamber last year she wore a pink sweater with the logo 'Dangerous Creature,' prompting Sen. Mitt Romney to tell her she was 'breaking the internet' ... much to her pleasure. Members of the Biden administration could be forgiven for thinking she was trying to break them too. For a while she was seen as an example of bipartisan progress, working with Republicans to get things done. She was another Arizona maverick in the style of Sen. John McCain. But she eventually formed an awkward squad with Sen. Joe Manchin to push back against legislation that would pour trillions of dollars into public services and raise taxes. She and Manchin killed Democratic efforts to loosen the filibuster in an effort to force through voting reform this year, winning her censure by her state party. And triggering talk of a primary challenge. While Manchin set out his red lines and his asks, Sinema cut a much more enigmatic figure. Sinema with Biden and other senators after a bipartisan group met at the White House to discuss an infrastructure deal Her position even provided fodder for Saturday Night Live. 'What do I want from this bill?' asked Cecily Strong, playing Sinema. 'I'll never tell.' For her part, Sinema said she did not understand the criticism. 'I'm always surprised when people say, 'Oh, she's an enigma,' she told the Washington Post last year. 'I'm, like, not at all, actually. I'm very straightforward about what I believe in and why I'm doing what I do.' Others put it differently. 'I think she's a c***,' Alyssa Mastromonaco, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff under the Obama administration, told the hosts of "Pod Save America" at the start of the year. Robert Shapiro, political science professor at Columbia University, said Sinema was always more likely to jump ship than 75-year-old Manchin, whose political identity was more closely connected to being a blue collar-oriented Democrat. 'Sinema is not that kind of Democrat, and that may be related to her being part of a younger generation,' he said. 'Given this and given that Arizona voters may find independents appealing, this is not so surprising.' All rights reserved for this news site (dailymail) and under his responsibility