As Minnesota’s Gov. Tim Walz was crisscrossing the country in a bid to win the White House, fellow Minnesotan Sen. Tina Smith was working right below the presidential ticket to try to hold Democrats’ slim majority in the U.S. Senate.
But now that the elections are over, so is Smith’s time as vice chair of the committee, a role in which she was responsible for helping to fundraise for the committee and guide its political strategy.
“I’m so glad that I had a chance to do it. It was really worthwhile, I think in an election year that clearly was a disappointment for Democrats, the Senate races were a bright spot,” she said in an interview from her Capitol Hill office.
While Senate Democrats lost the majority and return to the minority with 47 members, Smith applauds Democrats for outperforming the top of the ticket in some parts of the country. Though not all of these Democratic candidates won, these small victories happened in Montana, Arizona, Ohio and Wisconsin as well as in Minnesota, where Sen. Amy Klobuchar won a fourth term.
Smith is up for re-election in 2026 and when asked whether she’s fully committed to running again, replied, “that’s my plan.” She was first appointed to the Senate in 2017 by then-Gov. Mark Dayton and elected to her seat in 2020.
With Peters set to depart the DSCC chairman post, Smith said she doesn’t have any plans to vie for the top job herself. “I didn’t want to be chair in 2024 and I don’t want to be chair in 2026,” she said.
She wouldn’t say whether she thinks Democrats could have performed better if President Joe Biden would have gotten out of the race earlier, arguing it was a “really complicated election.” But she does think Gov. Tim Walz was a [strong running mate](https://www.startribune.com/prominent-minnesota-dems-mostly-backing-gov-tim-walz-for-kamala-harris-vp/600386535) with Vice President Kamala Harris.