Montana Sen. Steve Daines will not seek reelection, he announced Wednesday, adding to a wave of retirements in the GOP ranks.
Daines’ announcement makes him the sixth Republican senator to choose not to seek reelection in this fall’s midterm elections, joining a list that includes North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who announced his decision last year, and Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who is running for governor instead of seeking a second term. Sens. Joni Ernst, Cynthia Lummis and Mitch McConnell, a former Senate majority leader, also announced they won’t seek reelection this cycle.
Daines, who was first elected to the Senate in 2014 and defeated then-incumbent Montana Gov. Steve Bullock in his 2020 reelection race, chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee from 2023 to 2025.
“Serving the people of Montana in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate the past 13 years has been the greatest honor of my professional career and I am grateful to God for allowing me to serve,” Daines said in a statement released Wednesday evening. “After wrestling with this decision for months, I have decided I will not seek re-election.”
