In what looks like it could turn into a major blow for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as he tries to build a Democratic coalition able to challenge President Trump after the 2026 midterms, one of the more vulnerable sitting Democratic senators who will be up for re-election in 2026 has announced that she will retire.
That Senator is one of New Hampshire’s United States Senators, Jeanne Shaheen, who announced in a video posted online on Wednesday, March 12. In the video, the sitting senator, currently wrapping up her second term, announced that she would not be seeking a third term in the United States Senate when she is up for re-election in 2026.
That is major problem for Senate Minority Leader Sen. Schumer for two reasons. One is that New Hampshire was quite close to going red in the 2024 election, and with President Trump and his agenda being quite popular so far, it is well within the realm of possibility that New Hampshire could go red in the 2026 midterms, particularly if the incumbent drops out.
Adding to that headache, the second big issue for Democrats in 2026 is that freshman Sen. Jon Ossoff will be up for re-election in 2026 as well, and it is unlikely that he will win the election. Particularly, Georgia is generally a red state, with his victory looking like a one-off, for now, and he is very unpopular even among Democrats because he has managed to alienate his would-be allies.
In any case, in the retirement video, Sen. Shaheen told her constituents, “I ran for public office to make a difference for the people of New Hampshire,” Shaheen said. “That purpose has never, and will never, change. But today, after careful consideration, I’m announcing that I have made the difficult decision not to seek reelection to the Senate in 2026.” As to her explanation for why she felt the need to give up her seat before a likely razor-thin midterm, she said, “It’s just time.”
She then insisted that she wasn’t retiring from advocating for Democratic causes, though she didn’t articulate how being a private citizen who supported Democratic causes would aid her Democratic constituents more than her remaining in the Senate. She said, “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.” Watch her here:
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Former Senator Scott Brown, commenting on the matter on X, said, “I appreciate@jeanneshaheen’s service to our state and for her support and vote for me as NH’s Ambassador to NZ and Samoa. 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. #nhpolitics 
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Scott, a Republican, has been seen meeting with Senate Republicans and told Semafor, a media outlet, that he might run for the seat and is currently thinking about it. Former New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, also a Republican, has also indicated that he might run for the Senate seat, NBC News reports.
Featured image credit: By I, DavidShankbone, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2301835