Sen. Krysten Sinema (I-Ariz.), who left the Democratic party late last year to possibly seek a second term as an Independent, announced in March that she will not seek re-election in 2024.
Back when she still granted interviews, Sinema seemed eager to talk to reporters about almost everything—just not her ex-husband.
Some details about the 47-year-old lawmaker’s personal life abound, thanks in large part to Sinema’s eagerness to share biographical tidbits with the press.
Ask about her upbringing and Sinema will wax nostalgic about the three years of her childhood spent living with her family in an abandoned Florida gas station.
She’ll open up about her march towards history as the Senate’s first openly bisexual member or explain why she swore her oath of office with her hand on a copy of the U.S. Constitution rather than a religious book.
Who is Krysten Sinema’s Husband?
Yet astonishingly little is known about Blake Dain, Sinema’s college sweetheart whom she later married in the 1990s. When asked about the relationship for a profile in AZ Central Sinema bristled, telling the interviewer, “I really don’t think this is any of your business.”
Sinema has been divorced since 1999 and never remarried.
Today, Sinema is reportedly single. She is also just one of just two senators who identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center. In 2013, Sinema became the first openly bisexual member of Congress when Arizona voters elected her to represent a U.S. House seat in the 2012 election
Over the years, Dain has also kept mum about the relationship and has declined requests for comment from multiple news outlets including the couple’s home-state newspaper of record, AZ Central.
Indeed, the relationship was so well-hidden that several profiles documenting Sinema’s rise to the Senate fail to include that she was even married in the first place.
Others erroneously state that she never married.
It’s not just the relationship that has been kept under wraps. A public records search for Dain reveals only a few details on his age and height but sheds no light on his occupation.
Readers will also be forced to conjure up a mental image of the ex-husband: he’s conspicuously absent from public photos of Sinema and does not appear to maintain any social media accounts on any major platforms including Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
Meanwhile, reporters at national newspapers, gossip columnists, and tabloid editors alike have tried their best to find some information— anything—on Dain.
Here is what we do know:
Dain turned 51 this year, making him four years Sinema’s senior. He’s also 5’9,” Christian and identifies as straight.
The couple met and dated while they were both attending Brigham Young University in the early 1990s.
Sinema and Dain later married in Portland, Oregon on Oct. 7, 1995. She was 19 at the time. The couple separated in March of 1999, according to state marriage records obtained by Gawker last year, which revealed Sinema is the one who filed for divorce, checking a box on that form that says, “My marriage is irretrievably broken and there is no reasonable prospect of reconciliation.”
During the divorce proceedings, the couple split their assets and property nearly 50/50. Each kept their own car and individual retirement plan. Sinema snagged the kitchen table. Dain held on to the kitchen appliances. The pair never had children together.
So, with Sinema catapulted onto the national stage, where is Dain now? No one really knows. From the look of things, that’s how Dain wants it. For now, he’ll remain best known for being the ex-husband of a famous senator.
As for Sinema, she still keeps a tight lid on her relationship status. But rumors about who she is, or was, dating have been floated by other high-profile politicos. Last year, political commentator Keith Olbermann, formerly of MSNBC, let slip in a tweet criticizing Sinema’s politics that he and the senator dated for a year.
“When we dated, in 2010-11, Kyrsten was a legit progressive, far to my left,” Olbermann wrote.
Sinema never confirmed the alleged relationship, nor has she been seen publicly with other romantic partners since joining the Senate.
