Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee and a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, said on Wednesday she will not seek reelection in 2026.
Shaheen, who is also a member of the Appropriations Committee and its defense panel, noted she will serve out the remainder of her term, with her decision likely to set a highly-competitive race for the New Hampshire seat.
“I ran for public office to make a difference for the people of New Hampshire. 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. It’s just time,” Shaheen said in a video statement.
Shaheen, 78, was elected to the Senate in 2008 after having previously served in the New Hampshire senate and then as her state’s governor.
Along with her role atop the Foreign Relations Committee, of which she is the first woman to lead the panel from either party, Shaheen is the second most senior Democrat on SASC behind Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-R.I.).
Shaheen has noted her efforts to “protect both Portsmouth Naval Shipyard as well as the Pease Air National Guard Base, the first Guard base to host the new KC-46 refueling tanker due to her advocacy” during her time on SASC.
In recent years, Shaheen has pressed the Army on its plans for night-vision devices, seeking specifics on the Army’s intent to balance the Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binocular program, of which New Hampshire-based L3Harris Technologies [LHX] is one of the prime contractors, with the Microsoft [MSFT]-led Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) effort (Defense Daily, April 18 2024).
At Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing in January, Shaheen was one of several democrats who pressed Hegseth on his prior remarks stating he doesn’t believe women should serve in combat roles in the military (Defense Daily, Jan. 14).