Sinema has long cultivated a strange air of mystery, refusing to explain herself to the press or even to her own voters. She’s been a leading obstacle in basically every element of her party’s agenda. She opposed a minimum-wage hike in the COVID-19 relief bill without really explaining why. And she never laid out her qualms with Build Back Better legislation—even after a constituent confronted her in a bathroom. “She doesn’t seem reachable,” one prominent Arizona Democratic activist who campaigned for Sinema told me this spring. “I don’t understand!” Two other Sinema voters, both political independents, told me in January that they didn’t necessarily mind their senator’s opposition to Build Back Better; they just wish they understood it.

All of this confusion has prompted dozens of articles asking things like “What is Kyrsten Sinema’s Deal?” and “What Does Kyrsten Sinema Really Want?” Reporters have called the senator’s views “shrouded” and “enigmatic,” pointing out that even her style “keeps us guessing.” But these are all euphemisms for describing someone who seems to take pride in her lack of transparency. She doesn’t just reject interview requests from national reporters and the Sunday talk-show circuit; she barely does interviews at all—even in her own state! Despite the fact that she is a government employee, paid with public tax dollars.

In her limited public statements of substance, Sinema has articulated that she wants to keep Arizona friendly to businesses. When she gave a floor speech defending her support for keeping the filibuster, she was thoughtful and open (though many in her party were outraged by her stance). But we don’t know much else about what Sinema stands for. She seems to view her base as Arizona moderates and independents, a broad middle section of voters who don’t have strong political views and aren’t demanding much in the way of political change. But Sinema has veered further to the right during her Senate career than seems politically expedient, given that Arizona has elected two Democratic senators and a Democratic president. Maybe Sinema wants to be known for being unknown—an inscrutable leader whose only observable passion seems to be running triathlons. Maybe that’s the vibe—above the fray, indifferent, immune—she’s going for.