‘The middle is disappearing’: Why three dealmaking Senate Democrats are heading for the exits

After months of wrestling with the decision of whether to run for reelection for a third term in the swing state of Michigan, Sen. Gary Peters took a pass.

After months of wrestling with the decision of whether to run for reelection for a third term in the swing state of Michigan, Sen. Gary Peters took a pass. At a moment when Senate Democrats are grappling with how to win back voters they lost to Trump in 2024, Peters was the first of at least three Senate Democrats who have opted against running for another term in the Senate, citing in part the changes to a body that used to be much easier to make deals in. “I will say, over these last few years, it gets harder every single year,” Peters said in an interview in his Washington office last week. “The middle is disappearing.” The retirements of the three Democratic senators – Peters of Michigan, Tina Smith of Minnesota and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire – illustrate the challenges Democrats face out of power. They also reflect the broader problems of the institution, which had already grown less collegial and productive even before it allowed President Donald Trump’s new administration to usurp its authority on everything from spending to tariffs. The senators leaving aren’t the same. Smith is proudly liberal, while Peters and Shaheen skew decidedly more toward the middle. Shaheen is a decade older than Smith or Peters and has been in the Senate longer. But all three have been instrumental in quietly toiling away on bipartisan negotiations and have earned a reputation for working across the aisle and away from the spotlight. They’re leaving a more divided place where the middle of both parties has been eroded and each year, big bipartisan legislation seems a more elusive goal.