Northeast
Potentially vulnerable Dem senator close to making re-election decision in key swing state
Longtime Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire is the last remaining Democrat up for re-election in the 2026 midterms in a competitive seat who has yet to publicly announce her intentions.
But that decision may be coming shortly.
Shaheen is expected to announce later this month whether she will seek a fourth six-year term representing the key New England swing state in the Senate, sources in New Hampshire confirm to Fox News Digital. The Washington D.C.-based Punchbowl, which covers Congress, was first to report the news.
The sources add that Shaheen will hold a major fundraiser on March 20 in Manchester, New Hampshire’s largest city. The senator will likely come to a decision regarding her political future and have some kind of announcement by the time of the fundraising event.
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Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., speaks at a policy event on lowering the cost of prescription drugs, at NHTI Concord Community College, on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Concord, N.H. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
There is intense speculation regarding whether the 78-year-old Shaheen, a former governor 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, will 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.
Then there’s the timing. At this point six years ago, during the 2020 cycle, Shaheen had already announced her re-election.
Her busy schedule may be one reason. The senator recently attended a major foreign policy summit in Munich, Germany, and then visited Ukraine in a show of support for the embattled nation, which has been fighting for survival following a Russian invasion three years ago.
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With Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer anxious to know where his conference’s senators facing elections in 2026 stand, a Democrat source on Capitol Hill tells Fox News that “the pressure in Washington for Sen. Shaheen to make a decision is growing.”
National Republicans see opportunities to flip the Senate seat in New Hampshire from blue to red, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee has already run ads targeting Shaheen over her defense of USAID funding that the Trump administration is axing.
“The vast majority of Democrats want Jeanne Shaheen to run one more time, and they’re extremely anxious for her to make the decision, because the political climate is so challenging right now, and she would be the strongest chance of retaining the seat,” a Democratic source in New Hampshire told Fox News.
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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, in a possible rematch against Shaheen.
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 with GOP officials in the nation’s capital.
Former Sen. Scott Brown is interviewed by Fox News Digital on Dec. 24, 2024 in Rye, New Hampshire. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
It has been 15 years since Republicans last won a Senate election in New Hampshire, with Democrats victorious in the past four elections.
Sen Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, told Fox News Digital recently that “the great thing about Jean Shaheen is she is in her community every week, talking to people about the things she works on, on their behalf. She’s common-sense, she’s bipartisan, and so I’m optimistic we will hold her seat.”
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.
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Connecticut is taking a step to make sure workers are paid fairly.
On June 30, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed Public Act 26-17, which enables the State Comptroller to issue a stop work order and withhold state funds to contractors that are not properly paying their employees.
The bill was signed on the construction site for Greeneville Elementary School, which is one of the four new elementary schools being built in Norwich. The State of Connecticut is reimbursing the city for 80% of the project, and the law applies to “any place where the state is making a payment,” Lamont said.
Wage theft can take many forms
It matters because wage theft can take many forms, from money taken from base pay, to money not given in benefits, Kimberly Glassman, director of compliance and government affairs for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 478, said.
Local 478 also has a presence in the Norwich school building project, with 10 to 20 union members working at each site daily, Glassman said.
What do state leaders think of the Greeneville site’s progress?
Lamont is impressed with how quickly the work is going.
“They told me that the walls went up in the last two weeks, so a lot of progress is happening,” he said.
During the bill signing, Norwich Mayor Swarnjit Singh touted the importance of using union labor and the value of project labor agreements.
“We are on time and on budget,” he said.
After the bill signing, Singh said its possible the Greeneville School building could be complete as soon as the first quarter of 2027, he said.
“They’re not wasting any time,” Singh said.
State Rep. Derrel Wilson attended the original Greeneville School as a kid, and still lives in Greeneville. He was credited as being one of the driving forces for getting the workers bill passed.
“It’s exciting seeing this revitalization for our neighborhood, seeing active construction and watching individuals rebuild our community,” Wilson said.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts dad on ‘adventure of a lifetime’ left fighting for his life in Fiji after noticing bug bite
A trip of a lifetime quickly turned into an unimaginable nightmare for a Massachusetts father who is fighting for his life halfway across the world after being bitten by a bug.
Scott and Claire Winslow always dreamt of sailing across the South Pacific with their family — and in April, they were finally able to turn their dream into a reality when they embarked on an “adventure of a lifetime” to enjoy their retirement, according to an online fundraiser.
But just weeks into the three-month sailing voyage, Scott noticed what appeared to be a bug bite and his health rapidly deteriorated, WBZ-TV reported.
His condition worsened for nearly two weeks while at sea alongside his nephew, and by the time their ship made it to land in Fiji, he was so weak that he was unable to walk.
The father-of-three was rushed to a local hospital, where doctors discovered the severity of his infection.
“By the time they got to a doctor, he was so sick,” Scott’s daughter Lisa Babbin told the outlet.
Scott was then transferred from a private hospital to the Intensive Care Unit at Lautoka Hospital on Vitu Levu, the main island of Fiji, where his wife Claire was heartbreakingly told to “prepare for the worst.”
The retiree remains critically ill on a ventilator, battling septic shock and organ failure.
The infection has spread to Scott’s lungs and gallbladder and his kidneys are functioning at “a fraction of their normal capacity,” the GoFundMe page says.
It’s still unclear how the infection started — whether by the insect bite, an infected wound or something else, according to the dad’s family.
While doctors are doing everything they can, Scott’s critical condition requires greater care than the local hospital can manage, according to his daughter.
“Every hour counts for my father,” Babbin said.
The family has secured a bed for the critically ill father at the Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Mass., but doesn’t know if they will be able to afford to fly him back to the United States for better care.
“All we need is a medflight, that’s the only thing we need to get him home,” Babbin said. “Medflights are not cheap.”
A special medical flight from Fiji to Boston — which is over 8,000 miles in distance — could set the family back a staggering $250,000, according to the outlet.
In addition to the fundraiser, the Winslow family has applied for a US government loan to help with the astronomical costs of flying Scott home as well as the foreign medical bills that are adding up without medical insurance coverage.
Scott is a “hardworking, loyal, generous” man, “always willing to lend a hand,” relatives wrote on the fundraising page.
“He has spent a lifetime helping others, supporting his family, and being there whenever someone needed him.”
While Scott’s family “remain hopeful and continue to pray” for his recovery, “they are also facing the overwhelming financial burden that comes with a catastrophic medical emergency overseas,” the fundraiser says.
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