Minnesota Democratic Sen. Tina Smith stunned the political world on Thursday and announced that she will not seek reelection in 2026.<\/p>\n
Smith stated that she has \u201cloved\u201d her role as a U.S. senator but would like to spend more time with her family because she has four grandchildren in a video that was uploaded on the social media site X.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted you to hear directly from me that I have decided not To run for re-election in the United States Senate In 2026. I\u2019ve loved my job as a United States senator. And also, after 20 years of hard and rewarding work In the public sector, I\u2019m ready to spend more time withmy family. You know when I first came into this Senate I didn\u2019t have any grandchildren And now Archie and I have four Our sons, Sam & Mason And daughters-in-law Emily And Julia are all living in Minneapolis,\u201d Smith began.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we can be together. My father is turning 95 this summer And I am blessed to Have a large extended family Of siblings Nieces And nephews One of my great joys Is knowing that To spend more time with them Doing sleepovers And helping out when the kids need me Is not just political; it is entirely personal But it\u2019s not lost on me That our country Needs strong progressive leadership Right now. Maybe more than ever So there are two things On my mind about this. The first Is that I have Two, nearly Two full years left In my Senate term And I plan to use Every single day Working as hard As can To represent your interests At the United States Senate And make sure Your voices,\u201d Smith added.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince I don\u2019t have to worry about running an election or a re-election campaign, I can focus entirely on this job right now. Second, We have a deep bench of political talent in Minnesota A group of leaders That are more than ready to pick up the work and carry us forward and I\u2019m excited to make room for them to move forward,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, what I\u2019m going to miss most about this job is not the perks or certainly not all the attention; it\u2019s going to be That has been an inspiration to me every single day that I\u2019ve served, so I\u2019m grateful for that, and I\u2019m going to spend the next two years figuring out how. Thank you all so thank,\u201d she concluded.
\nIn 2020, she defeated Jason Lewis, a former radio DJ who is now a Republican politician, by nearly six points and was re-elected to a full six-year term.<\/p>\n
This comes after Michigan Democratic Sen. Gary Peters declared that he will not run for a third term in 2026, opening up a fiercely contested battleground seat.<\/p>\n
The 66-year-old\u2019s shocking decision to resign after only two terms is unexpected and presents a challenge for Michigan Democrats at a time of upheaval, as they will probably have to split their strong bench between the 2026 Senate and gubernatorial contests.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always thought there would be a time that I would step aside and pass the reins for the next generation. I also never saw service in Congress as something you do your whole life,\u201d Peters told The Detroit News in an interview published Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that goes back to 2008 when I first won that House seat. I thought it would be for a matter of a few terms that I would serve, and then I would go back to private life. I want to be very clear: I\u2019m not retiring. I\u2019m just not running for reelection in the Senate. I hope, God willing, I have a lot more good years ahead,\u201d Peters added.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter three terms in the House and two terms in the Senate, I believe now is time for me to write a few more paragraphs in my current chapter and then turn over the reins,\u201d Peters said in a YouTube video. \u201cI will therefore not seek reelection in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Minnesota Democratic Sen. Tina Smith stunned the political world on Thursday and announced that she will not seek reelection in 2026. Smith stated that she has \u201cloved\u201d her role as a U.S. senator but would like to spend more time with her family because she has four grandchildren in a video that was uploaded on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25552"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25553,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25552\/revisions\/25553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}