Krysten Sinema's 2018 bank vote drew criticism from Democrats after the SVB meltdown

Senator Kyrsten Sinema is haunted by Donald Trump's 2018 rollback of bank regulations following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

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Sinema was one of 50 Democrats who voted in favor of the measure in the House and Senate; many Democrats now blame it for the SVB debacle. A majority of them—including several who lost their bids for reelection to the Senate that year, such as Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota—are no longer members of Congress.

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The vote helped Sinema establish her bipartisan credentials as a House member in 2018. It has now turned into a liability in Arizona, a vital battleground state, after five years and numerous bank collapses.

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Democratic senators who are up for reelection in 2018 include Sinema, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Jon Tester of Montana, and Tom Carper of Delaware. All of these senators backed the measure. Angus King of Maine, a fellow independent, did the same.

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They were all forced to dance around their vote from last week, with the majority blaming the regulators. In contrast to those senators, though, Sinema, who is currently running as an independent, is already up against a fierce left-wing campaign in Arizona, a state that President Joe Biden narrowly won in 2020.

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Democratic candidate for the position Ruben Gallego tweeted that Sinema was "in the clutches of Wall Street" and that her vote put hardworking Arizona, their families, and their small businesses at risk of a 2008-like disaster.

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When asked last week if she had a response to Gallego's critique, which has become a recurring theme since Sinema opposed Biden's initiatives last year to raise tax rates on corporations and the rich, Sinema ducked into an elevator.

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According to her spokesman Pablo Sierra-Carmona, the senator is not concerned with electoral politics.

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She insisted that a Democratic-only bill pass the carried interest tax cut for private equity in August. Democrats reluctantly conceded in the last hours of months-long negotiations because, without her vote, the package would have failed.

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In response to the bank fiasco, Sinema endorsed a bipartisan bill that would allow companies to recoup CEO bonuses and stock sale proceeds within 60 days of a failure. Along with Republican Thom Tillis of North Carolina, she also penned a letter criticizing the US Federal Reserve for its oversight of the San Francisco Fed.

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Sinema's answer, which is similar to other moderates who have blamed regulators rather than the 2018 law for what occurred despite the fact that she still caucuses with Democrats, is understandable.

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Tester, a prominent member of the Banking Committee, answered "zero" when asked what impact the 2018 bill had.

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But, Democrats in Arizona have a strong alternate in Gallego, unlike Tester and Manchin.

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Sinema has not yet declared whether she would seek reelection, but by declaring herself an independent, she can forego a Democratic primary and enter a three-way general election.

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The Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown of Ohio's campaign may take note of that vote. Only Brown, a Democrat who is running for reelection, opposed the 2018 law. Although Brown enjoys support from citizens in the Rust Belt state, Trump won both the 2016 and 2020 elections there. 

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Brown said of Republicans, "They're always doing Wall Street's bidding," but added that his own party isn't blameless either. Some people don't put up a strong enough fight. There are some that don't, though I won't name names.”

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Representatives Barbara Lee, Katie Porter, and Adam Schiff, three Democrats running for a vacancy in the California Senate, are attempting to set themselves apart on the subject.

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Porter is collaborating on legislation to repeal the 2018 law with Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has endorsed her campaign. Schiff put forth legislation addressing clawbacks.

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Democrats aren't the only ones who are paying attention to banking restrictions. Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican who defeated McCaskill in 2018 and is therefore untarnished by his voting record in this case, has proposed bringing back provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act, which was passed during the Great Depression and prohibited commercial banks from engaging in investment banking. It was repealed in 1999, under the Clinton administration, and has not been implemented yet. 

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Consumers in Missouri shouldn't be supporting tech billionaires in California, he told the press.

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On a platform of progressive populism, Democrat Lucas Kunce is competing for Hawley's seat. He wants to go further.

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"We must eradicate the corrupt culture in Washington, D.C. that has made it possible for banks to establish banking regulations and then rely on bailouts when things go wrong. The reinstatement of Glass-Steagall is just the start, he said.

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Nevertheless, no Republican Senate seat is up in a state that Biden carried.