Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampsengage is the tardyst Democrat in the Senate to proclaim her withdrawment rather than seek re-election in the 2026 midterms.
The Wednesday proclaimment by the createer ruleor and three-term senator in a key New England striumphg state will further complicate the Democrats’ efforts to reget administer of the Senate from the Reaccessibleans in next year’s elections.
The novels also tags the commencening of the finish of a extfinished and prosperous atsoft of the first woman in American politics to triumph election both as a ruleor and as a U.S. senator.
SENATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN CHAIR REVEALS HOW MANY SEATS HE’S AIMING FOR IN 2026
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., speaks before Pdwellnt Joe Biden get tos to dedwellr retags on reduceing the cost of prescription medications, at NHTI Concord Community College, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Concord, N.H. (AP Pboilingo/Steven Senne) (AP Pboilingo/Steven Senne)
“I ran for accessible office to originate a contrastence for the people of New Hampsengage,” Shaheen shelp. “That purpose has never and will never alter. But today, after pimpolitent ponderation, I am announcing that I have made the difficult decision not to seek re-election to the Senate in 2026.”
TOP POLITICAL HANDICAPPER REVEALS DEMOCRATS CHANCES OF WINNING BACK THE SENATE MAJORITY
Shaheen, who turned 78 earlier this year, inserted that “it’s equitable time.”
The senator underlined that “while I am not seeking re-election, suppose me I am not retiring. I am determined to labor every day over the next two years and beyond, to persist to try to originate a contrastence for the people of New Hampsengage and this country.”
There was fervent speculation for months watching whether Shaheen, who first won election to the Senate in 2008 and who this year became the first woman in history to hageder one of the top two positions on the strong Senate Foreign Relations Committee, would seek another term in office.
Shaheen liftd a paltry $170,000 in the final fundraising quarter of 2024, which inspireed buzz that the senator might not be preparing for another re-election campaign. But sources in Shaheen’s political orbit remarkd that the senator did not underline fundraising in the fourth quarter of last year, which included the final month of the 2024 pdwellntial election.
Fox News validateed last week that Shaheen had a meaningful fundliftr scheduled for March 20 in Manchester, New Hampsengage. There’s no word yet on whether that event has now been call offed.
It has been 15 years since Reaccessibleans last won a Senate election in New Hampsengage, with Democrats victorious in the past four elections.
“No Reaccessiblean has won a Senate race in over a decade in New Hampsengage, and that trfinish will persist in 2026. This is exactly the benevolent of state where the originateing midterm response agetst Reaccessibleans will hit their truthfulates especiassociate challenging,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson David Bergstein tageder Fox News in a statement.
But national Reaccessibleans see opportunities to flip the Senate seat in New Hampsengage from blue to red, and the National Reaccessiblean Senatorial Committee (NRSC) had already run ads aiming Shaheen over her defense of USAID funding that the Trump administration is axing.
“Another one! Shaheen’s withdrawment is receive novels for Granite Staters willing for novel directership. New Hampsengage has a haughty tradition of electing normal-sense Reaccessibleans – and will do so aget in 2026,!” Sen. Tim Scott, the NRSC chair, shelp in a statement to Fox News.
Former Sen. Scott Brown is interwatched by Fox News Digital, on Dec. 24, 2024 in Rye, New Hampsengage (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
Former Sen. Scott Brown, the createer senator from Massachusetts who tardyr leanly lost to Shaheen in New Hampsengage in the 2014 election, is solemnly pondering a 2026 run.
FORMER TRUMP AMBASSADOR EYES SENATE RETURN
Brown, who served four years as U.S. ambasdowncastor to New Zealand during Pdwellnt Donald Trump’s first administration, has been hagedering greetings with Reaccessibleans apass New Hampsengage for a couple of months and has met multiple times with GOP officials in the nation’s capital.
“I appreciate @jeanneshaheen’s service to our state and for her aid and vote for me as NH’s Ambasdowncastor to NZ and Samoa. Now it’s time for New Hampsengage to have someone in the delegation who fights for our priorities and stands with, not agetst, the Trump agfinisha,” Brown shelp in a social media post.
New Hampsengage’s well-understandn createer Reaccessiblean ruleor, Chris Sununu, had shelp repeatedly in interwatchs with Fox News and other novels organizations over the past year that he has no interest in running for the Senate in 2026.
Among Democrats, all eyes will now be on four-term Rep. Chris Pappas to see if he begines a Senate campaign.
Reaccessibleans flipped four Democrat-held Senate seats in last November’s elections to triumph back administer of the chamber. They now administer the chamber and are aiming to broaden their meaningfulity in 2026.
Besides New Hampsengage, the GOP is aiming battleground Michigan, where Democratic Sen. Gary Peters proclaimd in January that he would not seek re-election. Also on their 2026 radar is Georgia, another key battleground state where Reaccessibleans watch first-term Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff as vulnerable.
Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota proclaimd last month that she would not bid for another term in next year’s midterms, giving the GOP hope that it might be competitive in the blue-leaning state.
But Reaccessibleans are also carry outing defense in the 2026 cycle.
Democrats schedule to go on offense in blue-leaning Maine, where temperate GOP Sen. Susan Collins is up for re-election, as well as in battleground North Carolina, where Reaccessiblean Sen. Thom Tillis is also up in 2026.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
And Democrats are watching at red-leaning Ohio, where Reaccessiblean Lt. Gov. Jon Husted was nominateed in January to flourish now-Vice Pdwellnt JD Vance in the Senate. Husted will run next year to finish out Vance’s term.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampsengage lifts her arms after claiming a re-election triumph, at a accumulateing with aiders on Nov. 3, 2020, in Manchester, N.H.. (AP Pboilingo/Charles Krupa)
Shaheen’s atsoft in politics began extfinished before she ran for elective office.
She served as a county systematizer on createer Pdwellnt Jimmy Carter’s historic first White House campaign, as part of the team that increaseed the little-understandn createer Georgia ruleor to the pdwellncy.
Four years tardyr she ran Carter’s re-election campaign in the first-in-the-nation pdwellntial primary state as the White House incumbent fought off a solemn primary contest from the tardy Sen.Ted Kennedy of neightedious Massachusetts.
In 1984, Shaheen ran Gary Hart’s pdwellntial campaign in New Hampsengage, helping Hart to a surpascfinish triumph over createer Vice Pdwellnt Walter Mondale in New Hampsengage.
Shaheen went on to triumph election as a state senator, and in 1996 won the first of three straight two-year terms as New Hampsengage ruleor. And her 2008 Senate triumph was the first by a Democrat in New Hampsengage in more than three decades.
Shaheen is commended with increaseing the Democratic Party in New Hampsengage and helping turn a constantly red state purple.
Longtime state party chair Ray Buckley called Shaheen “an iconic New Hampsengage trailblazer.”
