Jeanne Shaheen won’t run for re-election, opening another Democratic Senate seat in 2026
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., on Wednesday announced that she will not seek re-election in 2026, kicking off a competitive race to fill her seat.
In a video, Shaheen told her constituents, “Today, I am announcing that I have made the difficult decision not to seek re-election to the Senate in 2026.”
“It’s just time,” she added.
While she plans not to run in two years, Shaheen, 78, added that she would not be leaving her seat early and that, “Believe me, I am not retiring. I am determined to work every day over the next two years and beyond to continue to try to make a difference for the people of New Hampshire and this country.”
Former Massachusetts GOP Sen. Scott Brown, who lost a New Hampshire Senate race against Shaheen back in 2014, has reportedly been weighing another run in the Granite State. Brown was spotted at the Capitol meeting with Senate Republicans on Tuesday, and told Semafor that he is “thinking about” running for Senate.
Brown wrote in a post on X that he appreciated Shaheen’s service, and said, “Now it’s time for New Hampshire to have someone in the delegation who fights for our priorities and stands with, not against, the Trump agenda.”
It’s the third Democratic Senate retirement in a potentially competitive midterm race so far this election cycle.
Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan announced in January that he would not run again, opening up the race in one of the most tightly divided states in the country, which President Donald Trump carried in 2024.
Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota is also retiring in 2026, and while her state has not been as close as Michigan in recent years, there have been a number of close statewide races there in recent years, including in 2024, when Trump lost by just over 4 percentage points.
Republicans currently enjoy a 53-47 edge in the Senate, meaning that Democrats would have to net four seats to win the majority in 2026, since the GOP controls the tie-breaking vice presidency.
Former Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is also retiring in 2026, though his seat in deep-red Kentucky is highly unlikely to be competitive.
New Hampshire’s entire congressional delegation is controlled by Democrats, but the state has a history of electing members of both parties, and the presidential race was close there in 2024. Former Vice President Kamala Harris carried the state by 3 percentage points.
Also in 2024, Republican Kelly Ayotte won the state’s governorship, beating Democratic former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig by 9percentage points. Ayotte is also the most recent Republican to represent the state in the Senate, though she lost her re-election race in 2016 to now-Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan.
Ayotte is the second consecutive Republican governor elected by Granite State voters, as she succeeded former GOP Gov. Chris Sununu. Sununu was recruited to run for Senate last year but declined Republican entreaties.
Republicans expressed confidence that they could flip the open Senate seat, with National Republican Senatorial Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., saying in a statement that the state “has a proud tradition of electing common-sense Republicans—and will do so again in 2026!”
Democrats, though, believe the state’s historical trends are on their side.
“No Republican has won a Senate race in over a decade in New Hampshire, and that trend will continue in 2026. This is exactly the kind of state where the building midterm backlash against Republicans will hit their candidates especially hard,” said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman David Bergstein.
