Politics
Senator Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire Democrat, Won’t Run Again in 2026
Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire will not run for re-election in 2026, bringing an end to a long and singular political career and further complicating Democrats’ efforts to regain a majority in the Senate.
Her decision not to seek a fourth term will immediately set off a high-stakes race in a state whose voters are famously fickle. Last fall, New Hampshire voters supported former Vice President Kamala Harris for president and elected Democrats to Congress, but they also voted for a Republican governor and expanded Republican majorities in the state legislature.
“It was a difficult decision, made more difficult by the current environment in the country — by President Trump and what he’s doing right now,” Ms. Shaheen, 78, said in an interview with The New York Times. She specifically criticized the president’s focus on political retribution, his drastic cuts to the federal budget and his antagonism toward Ukraine as it defends itself from Russia’s invasion.
Ms. Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was the first woman to be elected governor of New Hampshire and the first woman in the country to serve as both a governor and a U.S. senator. She noted in the interview that she will have served for 30 years in elected office and spent 50 years in politics.
“It’s important for New Hampshire and the country to have a new generation of leadership,” she said.
Among the Republicans already considering a run for Senate from New Hampshire next year is former Senator Scott Brown, who represented Massachusetts for one term and later relocated to New Hampshire. He came close to beating Ms. Shaheen in 2014 and went on to become ambassador to New Zealand in Mr. Trump’s first term.
The state’s popular former governor, Chris Sununu, a Republican, has said that he will not run.
In the Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-to-47 majority, Ms. Shaheen is the third Democrat, after Senator Gary Peters of Michigan and Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota, to announce plans to retire, making the party’s path to a majority even more difficult. Democrats have few pickup opportunities and must now defend several open seats, though they are hopeful of a friendlier political environment given that the party out of power usually has a strong midterm election.
Even before Ms. Shaheen’s decision, Republicans saw an opportunity to flip the New Hampshire Senate seat in 2026. The National Republican Senatorial Committee recently created an ad criticizing her defense of foreign aid programs.
Ms. Shaheen, who was first elected to the Senate in 2008, a few years after serving three terms as governor, has played a starring role in the political life of New Hampshire for decades.
She was a county organizer on Jimmy Carter’s first presidential campaign, helping to catapult him from obscurity to the White House and demonstrating the significance of her tiny state’s early presidential primary election. Four years later, she was Mr. Carter’s state director in New Hampshire as he fended off a primary challenge from Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. In 1984, she ran Gary Hart’s presidential campaign in the state, engineering a surprise victory there over former Vice President Walter Mondale.
Ms. Shaheen is also credited with helping revive the fortunes of the Democratic Party in a state that was once overwhelmingly Republican.
Her election to the Senate was the first for a New Hampshire Democrat since 1975. But even before that, her tenure as governor helped modernize the party’s election machinery and created a blueprint for a generation of moderate New Hampshire Democrats who followed her as governor and in Congress. In her first run for governor, she neutralized Republicans’ longtime characterization of Democrats as big taxers by taking the state’s pledge against broad-based sales or income taxes.
All of that experience has given her perspective on her party’s current state, as it searches for a sharper response to Mr. Trump.
“I think people thought they were voting for someone who would address inflation, lower grocery prices, energy costs, housing,” she said. “They haven’t gotten any of those things.”
Democrats, she said, need to promote specific policies to improve Americans’ daily lives, including in education and health care.
Ms. Shaheen’s brand of low-drama leadership has none of the bombast and swagger currently in vogue, and perhaps would not have succeeded in other corners of the country. Critics have sometimes derided her as “Betty Crocker,” and she never became a well-known presence on national political talk shows. But in New Hampshire, where registered Republicans and undeclared voters outnumber Democrats, her no-nonsense style and cautious, long-game politics won her far more elections than she lost.
In the Senate, she mastered the art of patience and persistence, working for instance with a Republican colleague on a measure to promote energy efficiency over many years before seeing it become law.
Ms. Shaheen has been part of the New Hampshire political scene for so long that it is difficult to remember how controversial some of her signature efforts were in their day. As governor, she expanded access to public kindergarten and made New Hampshire the final state to adopt the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a state holiday — ideas that the rest of the country had largely accepted years earlier but that New Hampshire lawmakers had long resisted.
In Washington, where she also sits on the Senate Armed Services, Small Business and Appropriations committees, she points to her recent work on infrastructure legislation and a program to help small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic as career highlights. Both were bipartisan partnerships, a strategy she says she learned from her early days in politics, when New Hampshire was “a one-party state, essentially.”
She worked with Senator John McCain of Arizona, who died in 2018, on a plan to provide visas for Afghans who helped the U.S. military during the war in their country.
And in both Washington and New Hampshire, she has worked on issues of reproductive rights. In 1997, she notably signed the repeal of a 19th-century state law that had made abortion a felony, decades before the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
Ms. Shaheen has also been a booster of New Hampshire’s “first-in-the-nation” presidential primary — a designation that has been under attack by national Democrats who argue that the state, less racially diverse than much of the country, does not deserve its spot at the front of the line. In 2024, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. did not officially participate in the New Hampshire contest, although his supporters there waged a successful write-in campaign on his behalf.
To Ms. Shaheen and other proponents of New Hampshire’s nominating contest, the state’s small size and engaged electorate make it a good stage for candidates to hone their messages and hear directly from voters. She remains optimistic about its staying power. Already, she said, potential Democratic presidential candidates for 2028 are talking about making trips to the state.
For her part, Ms. Shaheen is imagining a new life with a less challenging schedule. “It will be nice to have a little more time to engage in some other things,” she said.
As anyone who has ever seen his buildings knows, Donald Trump has always liked to see his name displayed prominently. It’s become a hallmark of his presidency, to the point that the Treasury Department announced on Thursday that President Trump’s signature will appear on U.S. dollars later this year, a first for a sitting U.S. president.
The move is the latest reflecting a push to imprint his personal brand on Washington and the nation in ways that could outlast his presidency.
In total, since the start of Mr. Trump’s second term, there have been more than a dozen instances of his name, image or signature emblazoned on a variety of American initiatives and institutions. Some changes seem as if they could be lasting, some are caught up in the courts, and others may never get off the ground.
Here is a look at that ever-growing list.
Already approved uses
Joseph Eid/AFP via Getty Images, Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
U.S. Treasury
Eric Lee/The New York Times
Eric Lee/The New York Times
Trump Card
TrumpRX
Dr. Mehmet Oz, who runs Medicare and Medicaid, has said that Mr. Trump was not involved in picking the name. “We thought it had a catchy element to it,” he said.
Trump Accounts
Department of Interior, via Center for Biological Diversity
U.S. Navy
U.S. Air Force
Proposed uses
Johnny Milano/The New York Times
Todd Heisler/The New York Times
Shawn Thew/EPA, via Shutterstock
Washington Commanders
Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
Joseph Eid/AFP via Getty Images
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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A bipartisan group of lawmakers found Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., guilty of more than two dozen ethics violations, but House Democratic leadership is standing by their embattled colleague.
“As I understand it, the Ethics Committee has one final step in their process, so I’m not going to get out ahead of the Ethics Committee process that will be completed upon our return,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Friday morning. “And then I’ll have more to say.”
House Democratic Conference Chairman Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., also told Punchbowl News on Friday that he had not seen the ethics panel’s findings, but added “that doesn’t sound good” when told the body determined that she committed 25 ethics violations. Those charges include money laundering, making false statements on campaign finance reports and seeking special favors from entities receiving federal funding.
INDICTED DEMOCRAT REP. SHEILA CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK ONE STEP CLOSER TO EXPULSION
An eight-member House Ethics investigative subcommittee determined Friday that Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., committed 25 House ethics violations, which could lead to her potential expulsion from the House of Representatives. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The Florida Democrat is facing a separate federal criminal indictment that could result in more than five decades in prison if convicted. Cherfilus-McCormick, who has pleaded not guilty, is accused of illegally transferring millions in disaster relief funds improperly paid to her family’s healthcare company to finance her run for Congress and the purchase of luxury items, including a massive diamond ring.
The House Ethics Committee said it would announce its recommended punishment for Cherfilus-McCormick in April, which could be as severe as expulsion. Under House rules, a two-thirds majority would have to support the resolution to formally remove the Florida Democrat from the chamber.
Jeffries’ refusal so far to condemn Cherfilus-McCormick’s conduct mirrors the relative silence of the Democratic caucus, though some rank-and-file members are beginning to break their silence on the Florida Democrat.
Moderate Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., was the first Democratic lawmaker to publicly issue a statement Friday calling on Cherfilus-McCormick to resign or be removed following the guilty verdict.
“You can’t crime your way into legitimate power,” Gluesenkamp Perez wrote. “Since she was found guilty, she should resign or be removed.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. has so far refused to condemn Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McComrick, an indicted lawmaker facing a looming expulsion threat. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images; Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
HOUSE DEMOCRAT ACCUSES FELLOW DEM OF VIOLATING A ‘FREE AND FAIR ELECTION’ IN STUNNING PUBLIC MOVE
A handful of other congressional Democrats said Friday that they would consider backing an expulsion resolution if the indicted lawmaker did not leave on her own terms.
A Jeffries spokeperson did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Despite the looming expulsion threat, Cherfilus-McCormick has given no indication that she will resign. She is also running for a fourth term in November’s midterm elections.
“I look forward to proving my innocence,” Cherfilus-McCormick said in a statement Friday. “Until then, my focus remains where it belongs: showing up for the great people of Florida’s 20th District who sent me to Washington to fight for them.”
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., was the first congressional Democrat to call for Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick to resign or be removed following the conclusion of a rare House ethics hearing. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
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The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), House Republicans’ campaign arm, ripped congressional Democrats’ lack of outrage over Cherfilus-McCormick’s conduct.
“The Ethics Committee just confirmed that Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick broke the rules, and House Democrats are still saying nothing,” NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella said Friday. “Their silence is a choice. Democrats can stand for accountability or keep protecting a proven ethics violator, but voters won’t forget it.”
A rolling wave of “No Kings” protests swelled through America’s small towns and big cities Saturday, with crowds gathering to blast President Trump, Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdowns, the war in Iran and high gas and food prices.
Saturday’s demonstrations were expected to draw millions of people nationwide, including thousands for a downtown Los Angeles rally. More than 40 protests were planned for L.A., Orange and Ventura counties, part of the national “No Kings Day of Nonviolent Action.”
No Kings Coalition organizers were hoping that turnout for the rallies in all 50 states could combine to form the largest single-day protest in U.S. history. They pointed to growing anger over the country’s direction, including fatal ICE shootings and troops dispatched to the Middle East, since the first “No Kings” demonstration was held last June.
On Saturday morning, hundreds gathered around the reflecting pool at Pasadena City College. A band rolled through with a fascism-themed parody of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues.” Sign-toting protesters lined Colorado Boulevard, drawing a constant stream of honking from the cars driving by. For many, the Iran war was top of mind.
“Every time we protest, there’s something completely new, which speaks to the chaos of the Trump administration,” Cindy Campbell told The Times. “ICE raids last year, Epstein files a few months ago. Now, war.”
“This administration doesn’t serve us. It serves billionaires,” said Kent Miller, of Monrovia, who participated in the Pasadena protest. “War with Iran is only making life harder for working people.”
Miller pointed to a Chevron gas station advertising gas for $6.45 per gallon.
“See?” he said.
National coordinators said there has been increased interest in smaller communities, including Republican bastions, with higher-than-expected attendance during Saturday’s protests.
“I’m out here because I’m disgusted with what I’m seeing,” said Kersty Kinsey, a mother who was protesting near the Beaufort, S.C., City Hall. “People are suffering, and he’s playing golf. People are suffering, and he’s going other places and blowing things up.”
In Beaufort, an antebellum city founded in 1711, an estimated 3,000 people turned out — a marked increase over earlier “No Kings” rallies, said Barb Nash, one of the coordinators. Amid the moss-draped live oaks and blooming pink and white azaleas, a person in a purple Barney dinosaur costume held a sign reading: “Dino’s for Democracy.” A young girl handed out homemade “Resistance Cookies.”
Los Angeles coordinators said they expect more than 100,000 people at the local events, which were being planned for Beverly Hills, Burbank, West Covina, West Hollywood and Thousand Oaks. One group planned a “Road Outrage” car caravan to motor through Mid City with flapping flags calling for “No War,” and “ICE Out of LA.” At a Torrance gathering, cars honked, protesters waved flags, and a person in an inflatable green cow costume hoisted a large American flag.
The White House, in a Saturday statement, dismissed the protests as a “Trump Derangement Therapy Session.”
Organizers said they have been particularly encouraged by the surge of interest from groups in rural communities that wanted to join the loose-knit No Kings Coalition and hold protests.
Jaynie Parrish, founder of the Arizona Native Vote project, started planning a protest for her tiny town of Kayenta, on the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona, only earlier this week.
“My dad, who’s a [military] veteran and an elder, said: ‘We should go,’ and I said, ‘OK,’” Parrish told The Times.
“Our folks don’t always protest for things, but this was very important,” Parrish said. “A lot of our families are feeling the impacts right now of higher prices and things being cut. A lot of our healthcare benefits are being cut … and our tribal sovereignty is being threatened.”
Upbeat Midwestern activists withstood whipping winds to form a line of protesters stretching nearly three blocks of Burlington Avenue in Hastings, Neb. Under the crisp blue skies, one of the protesters, Drew Fausett, told The Times in a phone interview that he is a registered Republican in the decidedly red state.
“My politics haven’t really changed — but the party around me has,” Fausett said. “It used to be the two parties were two sides of the same coin, and they would work together — but not anymore.”
He and his wife, Becky, have attended “No Kings” and other protests because “it’s the only way to show that people have different opinions,” he said. “People are out here speaking for their families and their neighbors. That’s what this is all about.”
Trump’s policies are hurting many in Nebraska — including farmers, said Debby Thompson, one of the Hastings organizers.
“We want to urge our representatives in Congress to not just rubber stamp whatever Trump wants because it’s really hurting rural folks and farmers,” Thompson said. “The tariffs and huge increase in prices on fertilizer are hitting farmers really hard.”
The “No Kings” campaign sprouted in June as an act of defiance on Trump’s 79th birthday. He wanted a military parade in Washington to mark his milestone, and anti-Trump protesters came out in force — an estimated 5 million people around the country — with their own display. At the time, Trump’s second-term policies were coming into focus, including ramping up immigration raids, deploying the National Guard to L.A. in response to protests, and mass firings within the federal government.
A subsequent event in mid-October drew even larger crowds, with an estimated 7 million people protesting around the country.
Saturday’s event coincided with a dip in Trump’s approval ratings. A Reuters/Ipsos poll last week found 36% approve of Trump’s job performance, marking the lowest level since his return to office last year. In a separate Fox News Poll released last week, 59% disapproved of his job performance.
“Since the last ‘No Kings,’ we’re seeing higher gas prices and groceries, all while there’s an illegal war in Iran,” national organizer Sarah Parker of the organization 50501 said during a Thursday press briefing. “We’ve also seen our neighbors executed — American citizens executed.”
Widespread protests and candlelight vigils followed January’s fatal shootings by ICE agents in Minneapolis of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, and Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse.
“The defining story of this Saturday’s mobilization is not just how many people are protesting — but where they are protesting,” Leah Greenberg, co-founder of Indivisible, said during the press briefing. She said two-thirds of the RSVPs to national organizers came from outside of major urban centers.
The Los Angeles event was organized by the local chapter of 50501 (short for “50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement”) and other progressive groups, including the ACLU, Human Rights Campaign, Indivisible and Public Citizen, as well as labor unions such as Unite Here Local 11 and the Service Workers International Union.
“There’s an affordability crisis in this country — people can’t afford groceries or healthcare,” Joseph Bryant, SEIU executive vice president, said in a statement. “But this administration is focused on expanding its power, starting unnecessary wars that benefit billionaires, and targeting immigrants and citizens who dare to stand up for them.”
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