Thune: Michigan, Minnesota Senate seats likely pickup opportunities for GOP

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) suggested Friday that open Senate seats in Michigan and Minnesota could serve as potential pickup opportunities for Republicans in 2026.

“I think they are,” Thune said during an interview on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom,” when asked if both states served as possible pickups for the GOP.

“I mean, those are open seats. Minnesota is arguably slightly harder than Michigan,” he continued. “Both are our states that we haven't elected a Republican senator to from — in a long time. But I think that these are different times and people are looking for change in this country. And I think even states that have traditionally been blue states present opportunities for us.”

Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) became the second Senate Democrat to announce she wouldn’t seek reelection next year, several weeks after Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said he wouldn’t seek reelection in Michigan.

Michigan went for President Trump by just more than 1 percentage point in November, while former Vice President Harris won Minnesota by just more than 4 points.

Peters’s seat is seen as a prime state for Senate Republicans to expand their map, though Republicans haven’t won statewide in Minnesota since 2006, when former Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) won reelection.

Thune acknowledged headwinds the party in power faces during midterm cycles but expressed optimism that Republicans could win those seats.

“If we do things right, put up a record of accomplishment and support the president and what we're trying to get accomplished here in the House and the Senate, the map, which typically in a midterm election, particularly a president's second term, generally is harder,” he told the network. “We're going to do everything we can.”

In addition to defending seats in Michigan and Minnesota, Democrats will also have to defend first-term incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) in Georgia — another battleground state Trump clinched in November.

But Democrats may have a few opportunities to gain a few seats back, particularly with Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) up for reelection next year.