Potentially vulnerable Dem senator close to making re-election decision in key swing state

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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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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.

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.