Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire announced Wednesday that she would not seek re-election in 2026, giving Republicans another opportunity to grow their Senate majority.
Shaheen has served in the Senate since 2009, flipping the previously red seat blue. Shaheen had also previously served as governor and in the state Senate.
'New Hampshire has a proud tradition of electing common-sense Republicans—and will do so again in 2026!'
"Today, after careful consideration, I'm announcing that I have made the difficult decision not to seek re-election to the Senate in 2026," Shaheen said in a statement Wednesday. "There are urgent challenges ahead, both here at home and around the world. And while I'm not seeking re-election — believe me — I am not retiring."
Although both Senate seats have been held by Democrats for the last few elections, New Hampshire has elected Republican governors since 2016, and Republicans have held on to a majority in the state Senate. Given the strong Republican voting presence in the state, the GOP has the opportunity to flip another key Senate seat.
"Another one!" Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina said in a statement Wednesday. "Shaheen's retirement is welcome news for Granite Staters eager for new leadership. New Hampshire has a proud tradition of electing common-sense Republicans—and will do so again in 2026!"
Republicans flipped four Democrat-held Senate seats in 2024, electing Republican Sens. Tim Sheehy of Montana, Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania, Bernie Moreno of Ohio, and Jim Justice of West Virginia. This leaves Republicans with a comfortable 53-seat majority to work with.
There has also been some speculation about a potential senatorial run by Republican former Gov. Chris Sununu. Although Sununu has been a past critic of President Donald Trump, he has since warmed up to the party leader and even endorsed him in 2024.
“I have not ruled it out completely, but folks in Washington have asked me to think about it and to consider it, and that is just kind of where I am,” Sununu told the New Hampshire Journal on Tuesday.
“I like getting stuff done,” Sununu said. “I don’t think they could handle me down there. I’d be like a lion in a cage.”
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Finally — a politician who knows something about the car business.
I'm talking about Sen. Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican who spent decades building a car dealership empire. That experience has led him to introduce legislation that would repeal emissions rules and give tax breaks to car manufacturers.
'Thanks to liberal bureaucrats who want to mandate what cars Americans can drive, states like mine are riddled with car lots filled with expensive EVs people simply don’t want.'
Moreno, along with a few other GOP senators, introduced bill S.711 — named the Transportation Freedom Act — to the floor on February 25, 2025.
This bill would repeal the multi-pollutant emissions standards for light-duty and medium-duty vehicles, repeal the next phase of heavy-duty vehicle greenhouse gas emissions standards; and repeal the Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules.
It would also eliminate vehicle emissions waivers and establish new passenger automobile standards.
This a glimmer of hope for the U.S. auto industry, which has been struggling to thrive in the face of inconsistent regulations, massive foreign competition, and misguided federal policies that hurt autoworkers, automakers, and consumers.
The Transportation Freedom Act seeks to make cars more affordable by eliminating government mandates that have caused vehicle prices to surge.
In introducing the bill, Moreno said: “Thanks to liberal bureaucrats who want to mandate what cars Americans can drive, states like mine are riddled with car lots filled with expensive EVs people simply don’t want and dormant factories that once employed millions of American workers. The only winner is China.”
Moreno says his bill would lower vehicle prices by “slashing onerous mandates that have made cars unaffordable to everyday Americans, like the EPA ‘tailpipe rule’ and California’s zero-emission vehicle mandate.”
The bill would revoke the California rule to ensure that "all Americans — not just California politicians — have a say in our country’s transportation future."
He says it would also end “arbitrary” CAFE fuel economy standards that require manufacturers to build vehicles "consumers simply do not want," and it provides a six-month window for their replacement with tough but achievable standards.
It would also give carmakers a 200% tax deduction for wages paid to U.S. autoworkers, up to $150,000 per worker, and block companies from using the money they save for stock buybacks.
Deductions would be limited to producers of vehicles with at least 75% U.S. content and those that did not transfer production outside the United States in the past taxable year. To get the deduction, carmakers would also have to offer health insurance, profit-sharing plans, and retiree benefits to workers and remain neutral in labor organizing campaigns.
The bill is cosponsored by three other freshman Republican senators: Indiana’s Jim Banks, Montana’s Tim Sheehy, and West Virginia’s Jim Justice. It is backed by General Motors, Stellantis, Toyota, the National Automobile Dealers Association, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, and American Trucking Associations.
His bill is likely to face opposition from environmental organizations that said the fuel efficiency and emissions standards set during the Biden administration would fight climate change and protect public health.
A statement from Toyota executive Mark Templin called Moreno’s bill a "commonsense approach that will provide regulatory predictability" and allow the auto industry to invest in emission-reduction technology while providing affordable choices for consumers.
"The auto industry has been whipsawed by shifting emission regulations for decades. These swings have hurt auto companies, auto dealers, and autoworkers, ultimately driving up the cost of automobiles in America."
A statement from Mark Stanton, NADA trade group president and CEO, said his group strongly supports Moreno’s proposed national fuel economy standard as something "achievable, affordable, and maintains consumer vehicle choice."
"At the end of the day, the $7,500 incentive is catastrophically stupid."
Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio isn’t pulling any punches when it comes to government support for electric vehicles.
'If China is dramatically ahead of us on EVs, good for them. But we’re dramatically ahead of them in combustion and hybrids.'
Elected last year, Moreno immigrated from Colombia with his family when he was 5. Before entering politics, he worked in auto sales, eventually building an empire of luxury car dealerships.
Moreno is the first-ever senator with experience in automobile sales, which he says makes him the perfect person to be president Trump's "car czar."
One of his main targets is the $7,500 tax credit for EV purchases and leases, which has been a major driver of EV sales. Trump himself has agreed with removing the tax credit and the mandates.
The tax credit, says Moreno, is a way for the government to do what it has no business doing: “tell companies what to do and how to have a strategy.”
The results of this meddling speak for themselves.
The tax credit, along with other incentives and benefits included in president Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, has forced automakers to sell EVs at a loss, as well as to increase their investments in EV-related technology.
Needless to say, this has been very bad for the bottom line.
Take Ford Motor Co., which took a $1.22 billion loss in its EV division last quarter.
Removing the incentive should help manufacturers in the long term by allowing them to focus on what their customers want: gas-powered vehicles. As Moreno puts it, "There’s never been a case in time where consumers have been more clear about what they want and don’t want."
Still, this change may be painful in the short term, as unsold inventory piles up.
In October, industry trade association the Alliance for Automotive Innovation asked Congress to keep the EV tax credits to help them sell the EVs they've already produced.
Hyundai Motor Co. recently accelerated its plans to build a new factory in Georgia to take advantage of the tax credits. Now the company will pivot to hybrid, plug-in hybrids, and gas-powered cars.
Like many Republicans, including Trump, Moreno also supports scrapping Biden’s rules on tailpipe emissions, which opponents say amount to a de facto EV “mandate."
And while it is true that there has been a bump in EV sales, the rate of growth is winding down. In the face of that, many automakers have pulled back or delayed investments in order to lower costs and develop more profitable vehicles.
Several automakers, including Ford, see a major benefit in investing heavily in new hybrid vehicles and plan to keep both hybrid and traditional gas-powered cars as part of their sales mix for the next several years.
Moreno says this is good for the automakers — and good for the country, as it plays to our strategic advantages.
“If China is dramatically ahead of us on EVs, good for them. But we’re dramatically ahead of them in combustion and hybrids.”
Not that China isn't trying to close the gap — especially with the emergence of European tariffs on EV imports.
Hybrid vehicle exports made up 18% of China’s total to Europe last quarter, compared to 9% in the first quarter of 2024. Several companies, including Geely and BYD, have developed new hybrid cars, with Tesla rival XPeng planning to launch its first hybrid in early 2025.
Chinese carmakers are also still selling a lot of gas-powered vehicles, especially abroad in countries where EVs aren’t popular yet.
Will Tesla create a range extender for its vehicles or remain a purely electric car company? In order to increase market share, Tesla may pivot to compete. We shall see.
As the industry adapts, automakers are shifting focus toward diversified lineups, including hybrids, rather than adhering to aggressive all-electric mandates of going all electric by 2035.
Additionally, Moreno advocates for reducing government intervention in the automotive market. He stated, “We will establish a favorable environment for car companies with good taxes, regulations, and skilled workers. Let the marketplace operate without government interference.”
Post-McConnell Republicans now control the U.S. Senate, thanks in part to a Democratic super PAC closely affiliated with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
Although Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) has been in office for nearly two decades, he appeared particularly vulnerable this election cycle. The Duty and Country PAC, funded by the Schumer-linked Senate Majority PAC, meddled in the 2024 Ohio Republican primary in hopes of boosting the weaker of Brown's potential challengers in hopes of keeping the Senate seat.
It had no idea it would be helping the man who would ultimately unseat Brown: the Trump- and Vance-backed Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno.
'Exactly the type of MAGA fighter that we need in the United States Senate.'
The New York Times reported in March that Duty and Country, which had been running ads on behalf of Brown in Ohio, blew roughly $2.7 million to run an ad across the state characterizing Moreno — then facing off with Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan — as an ultraconservative aligned with President Donald Trump.
While the ad was on its face negative, it highlighted views and credentials that might resonate with likely Republican voters.
"MAGA Republican Bernie Moreno is too conservative for Ohio," said the ad. "In Washington, Moreno would do Donald Trump's bidding. That's why Trump endorsed Moreno, calling him 'exactly the type of MAGA fighter that we need in the United States Senate.'"
Dolan told NBC News at the time, "National Democrats are putting millions of dollars behind Bernie Moreno in the waning days of this primary because he is damaged, unelectable and incapable of defeating Sherrod Brown."
"Democrats constantly underestimate the America First movement at their own peril," said Reagan McCarthy, Moreno's communications director. "They thought President Trump would be easy to beat in 2016 and then they got their clocks cleaned when he demolished Hillary Clinton. The same thing is going to happen to Sherrod Brown this year."
Of the two, McCarthy was right.
'You're fired, buddy.'
With 92% of the vote in, Decision Desk HQ indicated that Moreno beat Brown 50.2% to 46.4%, netting over 220,000 more votes.
"What we need in the United States of America is leaders in Washington, D.C., that actually put the interests of American citizens above all else. We're tired of being treated like second-class citizens in our own country. We're tired of leaders that think we're garbage and we're tired of being treated like garbage," the soon-to-be senator said in his victory speech.
Moreno then singled out Schumer, saying, "Chuck Schumer, if you're watching, thanks for the help in the primary, but you're fired, buddy."
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Republican candidate Bernie Moreno defeated Democratic incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio Tuesday night, flipping another crucial Senate seat.
Moreno won 50.5% of the vote while Moreno secured 46.1% of the vote, according to Politico. At the time of this writing, Republicans have now flipped two Senate seats, regaining their majority from the Democrats.
Brown, who was first elected as one of Ohio's two senators since 2006, was projected to be the winner early on in the race. As November approached, Moreno closed in on Brown's lead and actually surpassed him in the polls by a few points.
Moreno was supported by former President Donald Trump's endorsement as well as the Republican nominee's strong performance in Ohio.
Moreno originally ran for Ohio Senate in 2022 but later dropped out, allowing then-Republican candidate turned Trump running mate JD Vance to secure the electoral victory.
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'Unfortunately, the ABA has shown itself to be an ideologically captured, leftist institution,' the letter charges.
Sentinel proved to be a difference maker in electing Trump and helping Republicans decisively take back the Senate.
Republicans are projected to win back control of the U.S. Senate following Tuesday’s 2024 general election. As of this article’s publication, the GOP has secured at least 51 seats to create a governing majority in the upper chamber. This will give Republicans a Senate majority for the first time since 2020. In addition to winning […]
Republicans flipped another seat in the race for Senate after Ohio businessman Bernie Moreno defeated incumbent Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown
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