Northeast
Longtime Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen not seeking re-election in 2026 in key northeastern swing state
Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire is the latest Democrat in the Senate to announce her retirement rather than seek re-election in the 2026 midterms.
The Wednesday announcement by the former governor and three-term senator in a key New England swing state will further complicate the Democrats’ efforts to regain control of the Senate from the Republicans in next year’s elections.
The news also marks the beginning of the end of a long and successful career of the first woman in American politics to win election both as a governor and as a U.S. senator.
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Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., speaks before President Joe Biden arrives to deliver remarks on lowering the cost of prescription drugs, at NHTI Concord Community College, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Concord, N.H. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
“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 am announcing that I have made the difficult decision not to seek re-election to the Senate in 2026.”
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Shaheen, who turned 78 earlier this year, added that “it’s just time.”
The senator emphasized that “while I am not seeking re-election, 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.”
There was intense speculation for months regarding whether Shaheen, who first won election to the Senate in 2008 and who this year became the first woman in history to hold one of the top two positions on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, would seek another term in office.
Shaheen raised a paltry $170,000 in the final fundraising quarter of 2024, which sparked buzz that the senator might not be preparing for another re-election campaign. But sources in Shaheen’s political orbit noted that the senator did not emphasize fundraising in the fourth quarter of last year, which included the final month of the 2024 presidential election.
Fox News confirmed last week that Shaheen had a major fundraiser scheduled for March 20 in Manchester, New Hampshire. There’s no word yet on whether that event has now been canceled.
It has been 15 years since Republicans last won a Senate election in New Hampshire, with Democrats victorious in the past four elections.
“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,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson David Bergstein told Fox News in a statement.
But national Republicans see opportunities to flip the Senate seat in New Hampshire from blue to red, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) had already run ads targeting Shaheen over her defense of USAID funding that the Trump administration is axing.
“Another one! Shaheen’s retirement is welcome news for Granite Staters eager for new leadership. New Hampshire has a proud tradition of electing common-sense Republicans – and will do so again in 2026,!” Sen. Tim Scott, the NRSC chair, said in a statement to Fox News.
Former Sen. Scott Brown is interviewed by Fox News Digital, on Dec. 24, 2024 in Rye, New Hampshire (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
Former Sen. Scott Brown, the former senator from Massachusetts who later narrowly lost to Shaheen in New Hampshire in the 2014 election, is seriously considering a 2026 run.
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Brown, who served four years as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand during President Donald Trump’s first administration, has been holding meetings with Republicans across New Hampshire 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 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,” Brown said in a social media post.
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire is interviewed by Fox News Digital, on July 11, 2024 in Newfields, N.H. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
New Hampshire’s popular former Republican governor, Chris Sununu, has said repeatedly in interviews with Fox News and other news organizations over the past year that he had no interest in running for the Senate in 2026.
Sununu was heavily courted to run for the Senate in the 2022 cycle against Democrat incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan, another former governor, but decided against making a run.
Among Democrats, all eyes will now be on four-term Rep. Chris Pappas to see if he launches a Senate campaign. Pappas, whose family owns and operates an iconic restaurant and conference center in Manchester – the state’s largest city- was first elected to Congress in 2018.
Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH) greets supporters after his midterm victory during an election night watch party at the Puritan Conference Center on November 8, 2022 in Manchester, New Hampshire. (Photo by Sophie Park/Getty Images)
A person with knowledge of Pappas thinking confirmed to Fox News that the congressman is seriously considering a Senate run to succeed Shaheen.
Pappas, in a social media post, praised Shaheen as a “trailblazer who has worked every day to put New Hampshire first and make a difference for our families, community, and economy. Thank you for always leading with integrity, determination, and effectiveness for our state and nation.”
Former Democratic Rep. Ann Kuster, who retired from the House at the beginning of this year after a dozen years representing New Hampshire’s other congressional district, told Fox News that she would “take a serious look” at running for the Senate if Pappas decides against launching a campaign.
Also considering a Senate run, according to a source familiar, is Democratic Rep. Maggie Goodlander, who won election to Congress last November and succeeded Kuster.
Republicans flipped four Democrat-held Senate seats in last November’s elections to win back control of the chamber. They now control the chamber and are aiming to expand their majority in 2026.
Besides New Hampshire, the GOP is targeting battleground Michigan, where Democratic Sen. Gary Peters announced in January that he would not seek re-election. Also on their 2026 radar is Georgia, another key battleground state where Republicans view first-term Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff as vulnerable.
Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota announced 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 Republicans are also playing defense in the 2026 cycle.
Democrats plan to go on offense in blue-leaning Maine, where moderate GOP Sen. Susan Collins is up for re-election, as well as in battleground North Carolina, where Republican Sen. Thom Tillis is also up in 2026.
And Democrats are looking at red-leaning Ohio, where Republican Lt. Gov. Jon Husted was appointed in January to succeed now-Vice President JD Vance in the Senate. Husted will run next year to finish out Vance’s term.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire raises her arms after claiming a re-election victory, at a gathering with supporters on Nov. 3, 2020, in Manchester, N.H.. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Shaheen’s career in politics began long before she ran for elective office.
She served as a county organizer on former President Jimmy Carter’s historic first White House campaign, as part of the team that boosted the little-known former Georgia governor to the presidency.
Four years later she ran Carter’s re-election campaign in the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state as the White House incumbent fought off a serious primary challenge from the late Sen.Ted Kennedy of neighboring Massachusetts.
In 1984, Shaheen ran Gary Hart’s presidential campaign in New Hampshire, helping Hart to a surprise victory over former Vice President Walter Mondale in New Hampshire.
Shaheen went on to win election as a state senator, and in 1996 won the first of three straight two-year terms as New Hampshire governor. And her 2008 Senate victory was the first by a Democrat in New Hampshire in more than three decades.
Shaheen is credited with boosting the Democratic Party in New Hampshire and helping turn a red state purple.
Longtime state party chair Ray Buckley called Shaheen “an iconic New Hampshire trailblazer.”
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Boston, MA
When did Southie get richy-rich? – The Boston Globe
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Born and raised in Southie, Heather Foley has seen her neighborhood morph over the past three decades of scrubbing, renovation, and new construction for higher-income new arrivals.
But even Foley was surprised to discover that her South Boston, where kids once went to the corner to buy milk and cigarettes for parents, has emerged with the city’s second-highest average income, even ahead of Charlestown and Beacon Hill.
Her first thought?: “I gotta start being nicer to my neighbors if that’s the kind of money they’re making.”
What’s a household?
Decades ago, when “Good Will Hunting” was filmed in the neighborhood and Southie was known as a working-class area, there were more kids around and maybe just a single breadwinner in some homes.
Since then, Southie saw more two-earner households, fewer kids, and spiffier rental units where three or four roommates could contribute to a “household.” The changes, along with spillover from the adjacent, pricier Seaport, or South Boston waterfront, are factors in Census data showing more than 40 percent of Southie households earn more than $200,000 a year.
Staying put
Foley, 46, a photo shoot producer, considers herself lucky. She didn’t move out to the South Shore like many neighborhood longtimers. She’s living in a family home on a block with residents — oldtimers and newer arrivals — who aren’t flipping properties for big bucks.
Another blessing, particularly valuable this winter? She has a driveway.
As a kid, she went to church and school at Gate of Heaven, St. Brigid, and St. Peter, and jokes that she’s “so sad I didn’t buy a three-decker with my First Communion money, because I probably could have.”
Waves of gentrification
She remembers the earlier waves of newcomers, when glassy sports bars like Stats Bar & Grille muscled in among longtime restaurants like Amrheins.
But now, even the popular Stats is moving out at the end of the month. The property owner is developing a five-story, mixed-use residential building at the site.
A small silver lining
Foley notes that some of the onetime “newcomers” have been here for three decades — and in some ways, have stabilized the place. Many have raised kids, who, like her son, may return to the neighborhood as young adults (albeit splitting a rented apartment with friends). Stats, the sports bar, says it will also return to the neighborhood’s thriving food scene.
“We have a lot of great restaurants now,” Foley says, “and everyone cleans up after their dog.”
Read: These maps show Boston’s wealthiest and most populous neighborhoods — plus other key trends.
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Pittsburg, PA
As his polarizing Pitt career winds down, a banged-up Cam Corhen has saved his best for last
Connecticut
Hartford community grieves men killed in police shootings
The Hartford community is grappling with two police shootings that happened within eight days of each other. Both started off as mental health calls about someone in distress.
People came together to remember one of the men killed at a vigil on Wednesday evening.
With hands joined, a prayer for peace and comfort was spoken for the family of Everard Walker. He was having a mental health crisis when a family member called 211 on Feb.19.
Two mental health professionals from the state-operated Capitol Regional Mental Health Center requested Hartford police come with them to Walker’s apartment on Capitol Avenue.
A scuffle ensued, and police said it looked like Walker was going to stab an officer. The brief fight ended with an officer shooting and killing Walker.
The family is planning to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the city.
“All I will have now is a tombstone and the voicemails he left on my phone that I listen over and over again at night just so I can fall asleep,” Menan Walker, one of Walker’s daughters, said.
City councilman Josh Michtom (WF) is asking whether police could have acted differently.
“To me, the really concerning thing is why the police were there at all, why they went into that apartment in the way that they did, in the numbers that they did,” he said.
The president of Hartford’s police union, James Rutkauski, asked the community to hold their judgment and wait for a full investigation by the Inspector General’s office to be completed.
A different tone was taken in a statement released about another police shooting on Blue Hills Avenue on Feb. 27.
Rutkauski said the union fully supports the officer who fired at 55-year-old Steven Jones, who was holding a knife during a mental health crisis.
In part, the union’s statement says that Jones “deliberately advanced on the officer in a manner that created an immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury. This was a 100% justified use of deadly force.”
The Inspector General’s office will determine if the officer was justified following an investigation.
The officer who shot Jones was the fourth to arrive on the scene. Three others tried to get him to drop the knife, even using a taser, before the shooting.
“It just feels like beyond the conduct of any one officer, we have this problem, which is that we send cops for every problem,” Michtom said. “I don’t know how you can de-escalate at the point of a gun.”
Jones died from his injuries on Tuesday.
The union’s statement went on to say that officers should not be society’s default for mental health professionals. The statement said in part, “We ask for renewed commitment from our legislators to remove police from being the vanguard of what should be a mental health professional response.”
The officers involved in both shootings are on administrative leave.
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