Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith’s (D) decision to not run for reelection in 2026 is adding another headache for Democrats trying to win back control of the Senate in two years.

Smith became the second Senate Democrat to announce their retirement in the past few weeks after Sen. Gary Peters (Mich.) also decided against seeking another term last month. Michigan is more solidly a battleground state than the Democratic-leaning Minnesota, which hasn’t elected a Republican senator in more than two decades.

But Smith’s retirement has offered Republicans a unique opening for the seat, likely requiring Democrats to put up some defense to keep it within the fold.

“I think there's no question potentially this could expand the battleground map, right?” said Democratic strategist and attorney Abou Amara. “And so anytime you're expanding the map to defend, that means you've got to have resources to do that.”

“I think part of whoever becomes the candidate or the nominee is really going to need to show polling to move this race from a kind of a tier — tier two, if you will, and move it down the list, as opposed to, you know, Minnesota being moved up the list to a tier-one battleground,” he added.

Democrats, who lost their Senate majority after November, are looking to curb further losses in the upper chamber as they defend seats in Michigan and Georgia in 2026. Democrats will likely also have their eye on defending the seats held by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), though the two comfortably won their last elections in 2018 by double-digit margins.

That's compounded by the fact that many Senate Republicans seeking reelection are in more reliably red states, giving Democrats fewer opportunities to pick off incumbents. Some of their best chances lie in Maine and North Carolina, for example, where Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) are up for reelection.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck........

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