On February 13, Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) announced that she would be retiring at the end of her term in January 2027. The 66-year-old senator made the announcement in a video posted to X, where she stated that the decision was “not political” and was instead based on a desire to “spend more time with [her] family.”
“This decision is not political,” Smith said. “It is entirely personal, but it’s not lost on me that our country is in need of strong progressive leadership, right now maybe more than ever.”
“So, there are two things on my mind about this,” she added. “The first is that I have nearly two full years left in my Senate term, and I plan to use every single day working to represent your interests in the United States Senate. … And also, since I don’t have to worry about running a re-election campaign, I can focus entirely on this job right now.”
Smith went on to claim that Minnesota Democrats have a “deep bench of political talent.”
Smith, who has served in the Senate since 2018, first won her seat in a special election to replace disgraced former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), who resigned after facing sexual misconduct allegations. Prior to serving in the Senate, Smith was the lieutenant governor of Minnesota from 2015 to 2018, and worked as an executive at Planned Parenthood of Minnesota before that.
Her announcement marks the second Democrat senator in the short month and a half of 2025 to declare their intention not to run for reelection, after Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), who announced in January that he would not be seeking reelection. In his announcement, Peters explained that he “always thought there would be a time that I would step aside and pass the reins for the next generation,” adding: “I also never saw service in Congress as something you do your whole life.”
These two retirements only serve to potentially strengthen the Republican Party’s majority after the 2026 elections, as the GOP is currently favored to retain control of the Senate in the midterms, and some analysts believe they may even build on their 53-seat majority. While the Cook Political Report’s 2026 Senate forecast states that Democrats are “likely” to keep Smith’s seat, The Daily Wire reports that “the party’s longtime hold on the state has shown signs of slipping in recent elections.” Kamala Harris only won Minnesota by four percentage points in 2024, while former President Joe Biden won the state by seven points in the 2020 election — meaning that the state is trending closer to moderate or even Republican.
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