The spread of DOGE-centric legislation and bureaucracies has taken off like a SpaceX rocket in several states across the country since Elon Musk and lawmakers like Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., began their work this year.

Bean, chair of the bipartisan DOGE Caucus, was asked about copycat initiatives popping up around the country and remarked, "America has DOGE fever."

"As elected officials, we must ensure we are good stewards of taxpayer dollars. This means we must identify, investigate and eliminate wasteful spending."

With a governor’s race in November and President Donald Trump only losing their state by a historically small margin, Garden State Republicans appeared bullish this week as they put forth a proposal to "bring DOGE to New Jersey."

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GOP Assemblymen Alex Sauickie and Christopher DePhillips recently introduced Resolution 213 to create the NJ Delegation on Government Efficiency within the Treasury Department.

Sauickie quoted former President Ronald Reagan’s 1985 retort that "government is like a baby – an alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other."

"Except babies, if raised and disciplined rightly, grow into adults who usually become productive members of society. Those adopting our state budgets show no such discipline," Sauickie said, adding that it is time for "grownups to take responsibility and say ‘no’" to reckless spending.

Some Trenton lawmakers have painted New Jersey’s financial outlook as a "fiscal cliff," and DePhillips blamed outgoing Gov. Phil Murphy for claiming he inherited the problem from Republican Gov. Chris Christie.

"Taxpayers want accountability for how their hard-earned money is spent," DePhillips said.

He also called on Murphy to "stop fighting Trump" and lower New Jersey’s business taxes before the third-founded state in the union "loses out" on the potential upswing of the new administration.

Republican state Sen. Joe Pennacchio added in a recent Fox News Digital interview that he would be forming a DOGE committee in the state legislature.

"We're mirroring what the federal government and what [Musk is] doing," said Pennacchio.

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This week, Kentucky lawmakers also prioritized government efficiency measures, with Republican state Rep. Jared Bauman forwarding a bill to establish a working group to help the state treasury modernize its tax collections and accounting.

In Texas, lawmakers in both the state Senate and House are working on DOGE-centric initiatives.

Senate President Pro-Tempore Brandon Creighton, a Republican, first oversaw the passage of the strongest DEI ban in the U.S. during the 2023 session, which eliminated billions in taxpayer-funded waste and refocused public universities on education over social issues.

After DOGE formed at the federal level, Creighton said Texas is already a model for how a jurisdiction that prioritizes government efficiency will work.

"Seeing the swift action by President Trump and Elon Musk with DOGE is a welcome and necessary new era in Washington, D.C. – and I know they are just getting started," Creighton told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

"Many have said that Washington should take notes from Texas – because the Texas economic engine is proof that when government is committed to efficiency, accountability and conservative results, taxpayers win."

Meanwhile, Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, officially the president of the Senate, announced a bill late last month called "Texas DOGE – Improving Government Efficiency," according to Bloomberg.

Another reported bill by Republican state Sen. Bryan Hughes would form a DOGE office in the executive branch.

Meanwhile, the Texas House is considering forming a DOGE committee to analyze government efficiency through a 13-member panel.

It would investigate fraud claims, inefficient use of tax dollars, and the use of AI, according to FOX-7.

In Missouri, Republican state Rep. Ben Baker told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Missourians believe the state government is not as efficient or responsive as it should be.

"We want to look into that," said Baker.

Baker recently announced he was named to lead the state’s new DOGE Standing Committee, adding his work will "align with federal efforts."

In New Hampshire, newly-inaugurated Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s first executive order created a 15-member Commission on Government Efficiency (COGE).

"COGE will make us smarter than ever before when it comes to saving taxpayer dollars and finding better ways to serve the people of our state," she said in her inaugural address.

It will be led by former Gov. Craig Benson and businessman Andy Crews.

North Carolina also sought to get in on the DOGE trend.

Republican House Speaker Destin Hall unveiled the new NC Select Committee on Government Efficiency.

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State Reps. Keith Kidwell and John Torbett, both Republicans, will lead the initiative, looking into waste, duplication, mismanagement and constitutional violations.

"As the new Trump administration rightfully takes aim at Washington D.C.’s wasteful spending and inefficient bureaucracy, it is time for us in Raleigh to do the same," Kidwell said in a statement.

Bean, the U.S. House’s DOGE leader, further remarked on the collective efforts: 

"It’s exciting to see states pick up the DOGE baton, and I applaud their efforts to improve government efficiency and stop the abuse of taxpayer dollars."

Some in Congress, however, have cast doubt on DOGE. Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-R.I., said at an anti-DOGE rally that some of the actions at the federal level are "completely illegal."

New Hampshire lawmakers are looking to mirror Maine and Nebraska, and make theirs the third state that divides its presidential electors by congressional district in what a top Republican proponent called a bid to give more power to the voters.

Senate Bill 11, sponsored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Bill Gannon and seven other Republicans, would award a presidential delegate to the winner of each of its two congressional districts and award two more to the winner of the statewide popular vote.

"Congressional district presidential electors shall cast their ballots for the presidential and vice-presidential candidates who received the highest number of votes in their respective congressional districts," Senate Bill 11 reads.

The bill will receive its first committee hearing Tuesday, Fox News Digital has learned.

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The Granite State is known for its "First-in-the-nation" primary contest and midnight canvassing on Election Day in the small community of Dixville Notch.

"We want to stay ‘First-in-the-nation’," Gannon, of Sandown, told Fox News Digital.

"That’s a big, important thing. We want our voters to feel: ‘I go out and vote – my vote counts.'"

Gannon dismissed criticism from state Senate Minority Leader Rebecca Perkins Kwoka, who told WMUR that Republicans should play "fair and square" and claimed state legislature maps are already "very gerrymandered."

"I think this is yet another example of the Republicans kind of trying to change the system to meet their needs," she told the outlet.

Gannon disagreed. "She had a statement; ‘they’re trying to steal a vote’ or something – Not the case at all," he said.

Gannon indicated that if the law were in effect in the contentious 2000 presidential race, the divided electors would’ve benefited Democrats – though Vice President Al Gore took the state under its current winner-take-all system. In 2016, the division would have awarded Donald Trump a lone elector when Hillary Clinton took the state.

"I hope to pick up some Democrat support unless they vote in lockstep. If they're willing to look at the bill and say ‘jeez, it could benefit either side.' It's just going to represent the people more," he said.

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"That's what we're all about in New Hampshire, representing the will of the people."

New Hampshire notably has the largest state legislature in the country at 424 lawmakers. It dwarfs second-place Pennsylvania’s 203-member legislature.

Meanwhile, Democratic state Sen. Debra Altschiler panned the bill and quipped that if New Hampshire wants to follow Maine’s lead in this respect, there are other more progressive initiatives the legislature should take up.

"This bill is completely out of line with New Hampshire values," said Altschiller, of Stratham. 

"And if we, as New Hampshire, wanted to follow Maine's lead, then we would have universal free lunch for all students, and we'd have background checks on firearms purchases. But we don't have that."

"So we don't always take our marching orders from other states."

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In the past three presidential cycles, neighboring Maine has awarded its divided electors 3-1 to the Democratic candidate. Each time, Trump won the one elector from the state’s rural, interior, 2nd congressional district.

The opposite has been true in Nebraska in 2020 and 2024, when President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris each scored the single delegate from the Omaha-centric 2nd congressional district. Trump earned the other four delegates – and previous to 2016, all electors were often awarded to the Republican.

With the Republicans holding a 16-8 supermajority in the state Senate, the bill is likely to pass the chamber later this month or in February. The measure would then head to the state House of Representatives, where the GOP also holds a wide majority and where Republican lawmakers will likely be receptive to the legislation.

CONCORD, N.H. – After eight years steering swing state New Hampshire, Republican Chris Sununu left office a few days ago with some of the highest approval ratings among America's 50 governors.

Sununu, who won election and re-election four times [New Hampshire and neighboring Vermont are the only states in the nation where governors serve two-year terms], gave credit to his team.

"If you want to be good as an executive, you’ve got to surround yourself with great people," Sununu said in a national digital exclusive interview with Fox News on his last full day in office on Wednesday.

Asked about his tenure in office, Sununu said, "Like anything in life, you want to just make sure you leave it better than you found it. And I couldn't be more proud of where we've come in the last eight years."

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"The key there is always finding a way to make it work for the citizens. That's it. That's the job. You have to be results-driven, regardless of the hand you're dealt, the politics you're given, the surrounding atmosphere," Sununu said.

"So I think in New Hampshire, we've done it pretty darn well," he touted.

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His successor as governor, fellow Republican and former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, agreed.

Ayotte, who campaigned on continuing the Sununu agenda, praised her predecessor.

"New Hampshire is moving in the right direction, and no one deserves more credit for that after four terms at the helm than Governor Chris Sununu. Thank you, Governor," Ayotte said.

Longtime New Hampshire Democratic Party chair Ray Buckely, a vocal Sununu critic, disagreed as he pointed to "years of failed Republican policies" under the retiring governor.

Sununu, who announced last year that he wouldn’t seek an unprecedented fifth two-year term as governor, reiterated what he's said for months, that he's "very much looking forward to getting back in the private sector, maybe private equity or boards."

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The 50-year-old Sununu, who when he was first elected in 2016 was the nation's youngest governor, has also, for months, repeatedly ruled out running for the Senate in New Hampshire in 2026. 

"I'm not planning on running for anything right now. I'm really not, at least for the next two, four, six years," he emphasized.

But Sununu, who in 2023 seriously mulled a Republican presidential nomination run in 2024 before deciding against it, didn't totally close the door to another run for office in the future.

"Who knows what happens down the road, but it would be way down the road and nothing, nothing I'm planning on, nothing my family would tolerate either short term," he said.

Sununu, who has been a regular on the cable news networks and Sunday talk shows in recent years, is considering a formalized media role.

"I'm definitely talking to a few different networks that have come and asked me to do certain things, and I'll continue doing stuff and helping them. Is there a long-term plan there to be a little more fixed with a network or a show or something like that? Definitely talking about it. I'm interested in it," he shared.

Sununu, who hails from a prominent political family (his father John H. Sununu served three terms as governor and later as President George H.W. Bush's chief of staff, and older brother John E. Sununu was a congressman and senator), emphasized, "I'm definitely going to want to keep scratching that political itch in some way, not necessarily running for office, but staying involved, having a voice, helping the party."

But whether the party, once again firmly under President-elect Trump's control, wants Sununu's help is questionable.

Sununu, a very vocal critic of Trump following the then-president's unsuccessful efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Biden, ended up endorsing Trump rival Nikki Haley in the 2024 GOP presidential nomination race. Sununu became a top surrogate for Haley, a former two-term South Carolina governor who served as U.N. ambassador in Trump's first administration.

But after Trump cruised to the Republican presidential nomination, Sununu said he would vote for him.

"Donald Trump is the head of the party, and he's the voice of the Republican Party, and I got to say, I think he's doing a pretty darn good job in the first couple months," Sununu told Fox News. "The folks he's been nominating to these positions. They're moving quickly. They're not slowing down. The efforts with DOGE (Trump's planned government efficiency department), I think, have been phenomenal."

And he praised the politician he had long criticized.

"Give the president credit. He earned it. He won the primaries. He got the votes," Sununu said. "He did the groundwork to be successful, not just in the primary, but really galvanized a whole new working class of voters for the Republican Party as the general election went on. So he did a phenomenal job there."

But he said the GOP is bigger than any one politician, even Trump.

"It's not just a Donald Trump Republican or a Chris Sununu Republican. The Republican Party is big. Man. It is really, really, big, whether you have fiscal conservatives like myself, social moderates, whatever it might be, even some of the more extremist side of things, everyone has a place here and a voice."

And Sununu's very optimistic about the GOP's future.

"It's a really big party, and it's growing. I mean, it really is growing, and Nov. 5 was a huge example of that. So I'm very optimistic on where the Republican Party is going with Donald Trump, with other leaders. JD Vance, everybody, kind of coming to the table, putting their two cents in and making sure that it's all about America."

CONCORD, N.H. - The nation's newest governor is coming out of the starting gate by creating a new government efficiency commission that seems to be modeled, to a degree, on a similar national effort by President-elect Trump.

Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte of swing state New Hampshire, in her inaugural address on Thursday as she succeeded longtime GOP Gov. Chris Sununu, pointed to the state's budget challenges ahead due to the drying up of federal COVID relief funding for the states and a downturn in business revenues.

"We are going to have to look to find better ways to do things with fewer dollars," Ayotte said.

The new governor then said, "Because I know nothing is harder than getting politicians to not spend money, today I am announcing the creation of the Commission on Government Efficiency, or as I like to call it – the ‘COGE.’"

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Ayotte argued that "COGE will make us smarter than ever before when it comes to saving taxpayer dollars and finding better ways to serve the people of our state."

A couple of hours later, Ayotte signed her first executive order, which created the 15-member commission.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital ahead of her inauguration, Ayotte appeared to tease her proposal by emphasizing that "we look for new, efficient ways to do things better and serve taxpayers."

The move by New Hampshire's governor comes nearly two months after Trump, days after his presidential election victory, tapped Elon Musk, the world's richest person, and former Republican presidential candidate and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to steer what he called the "Department of Government Efficiency," better known by its acronym DOGE.

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Ayotte's proposal received plenty of applause from state lawmakers gathered at New Hampshire's Statehouse for the governor's inauguration. Republicans in November's elections made major gains as they strengthened their state House and state Senate majorities.

"I think it's a brilliant approach," Republican Mayor Jay Ruais of Manchester, New Hampshire's largest city, told Fox News. 

Ruais, considered a rising star in his party, emphasized "appointing a commission like this to go after any kind of bloat, I think, is a perfect approach and certainly going to be really beneficial for state government and also certainly helps us downstream at the local level as well."

New Hampshire Democrats obviously disagree.

"Governor Ayotte hasn’t been in office for a full twenty-four hours yet, and she is already laying the groundwork for massive budget cuts to services that people rely on. This is all thanks to years of failed Republican policies she championed," longtime New Hampshire Democratic Party chair Ray Buckley argued.

"Throughout her speech, one thing became clear – Kelly Ayotte is taking a page out of the Donald Trump playbook," Buckley claimed. "Governor Ayotte is following in Trump’s footsteps and setting on a dangerous and costly path for New Hampshire."

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Ayotte, a former U.S. senator, who previously served as a state attorney general, defeated Democratic gubernatorial nominee and former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig by nearly 10 points in November's election. Her victory kept the governor's office in GOP hands.

In her address, Ayotte praised her predecessor, whose policies she campaigned on continuing.

"New Hampshire is moving in the right direction, and no one deserves more credit for that after four terms at the helm than Governor Chris Sununu. Thank you, Governor," Ayotte said.

Looking ahead, Ayotte told GOP state legislative leaders, "I look forward to working with you … to marshal our Republican majorities over the next two years to deliver on the promises we made to keep our state moving in the right direction."

And Ayotte reiterated a longstanding pledge by New Hampshire Republicans that she is "not going to surprise anyone when I say this: no income tax, no sales tax, not now, not ever."

But Ayotte also extended an olive branch to Democrats and said, "My door is always open. Good government knows no party."

"I am going to be a governor for you, whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, Independent, you name it. Because our state is so much bigger than a party or an ideology," she added.

And Ayotte, who faced a barrage of attacks by Democrats over the issue of abortion during last year's gubernatorial campaign, repeated her vow to state lawmakers that "if you send me legislation that further restricts access to abortion beyond our current law: I will veto it."

Abortions are legal in New Hampshire through 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Ayotte also made headlines by announcing she'll move to ban cell phones in the state's public schools.

Pointing to her husband, Joe, a retired Air Force pilot who flew combat missions over Iraq and nowadays teaches middle school math, the governor said, "Joe and I talk about what he is seeing in the classroom and what his students need all the time. He and the thousands of teachers across our state are on the front lines of our education system. Teachers know uniquely what is working for our students and what isn’t. We need to listen to them.

"That’s why today I am announcing that we will be taking action to ban cell phones in our schools. Screens are negatively impacting our learning environments, drawing students' attention," Ayotte highlighted.

Sununu, in a Fox News Digital interview on the eve of Ayotte's inauguration, which was his last full day in office after eight years and four election victories (New Hampshire and neighboring Vermont are the only states in the nation to have two-year terms for governors), praised his successor.

"Kelly's been a great friend for decades. She's going to be a fantastic governor for New Hampshire. She's New Hampshire, born, bred, ready to go, hit the ground running with a great team here in the state," Sununu emphasized.

The outgoing governor added that while he's leaving office, he's always available for advice. "Anything I could possibly add, she knows she can call and text anytime," he said.

As Rep. Annie Kuster of New Hampshire finishes up her tenure in the House of Representatives this week. After a dozen years of representing New Hampshire in Congress, she has a message for some of her older colleagues.

"Some of my colleagues in the House of Representatives who have been in Congress for decades, and they get very comfortable in districts that are deep, deep blue. They haven't had a challenging election in a long time," Kuster told Fox News Digital.

The 68-year-old Kuster, who won election and re-election six times in swing state New Hampshire's competitive Second Congressional District, decided against running again for another term in 2024, partly because she felt it was time for a new generation of House Democrat leaders to take over and that she wanted to set an example.

"I did want to lead by example. I felt that 12 years was a good length of time to put my shoulder to the wheel and work hard for working families and veterans and farmers and save the planet and protect women's rights. These were all important to me. But I think the generational change that is going on in the House Democratic Caucus is really important," she emphasized.

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Kuster pointed to the generational shift among House Democrats with the overthrow of senior committee leaders in the weeks since November's election, when the party lost control of the White House and Senate majority and narrowly failed to regain control of the House.

Pointing to some of her House Democrat colleagues in their 70s or 80s, Kuster said "they served their country well, but I don't think there's any shame in stepping down and saying there are other people that can do this job."

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But Kuster highlighted that she was not referring to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who takes over in January as the top Democrat on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The former governor, who turns 78 next month, is considering running for re-election for a fourth six-year term in the Senate when she’s up in 2026.

"Let me just clarify. I'm not talking about Sen. Shaheen. I hope she will run for another term," Kuster said. "I think she’s at the top of her game and doing an extraordinary job."

Kuster says another reason she decided against seeking re-election was due to her time-consuming efforts as chair of the New Democrat Coalition.

"It's sort of the center left, pragmatic, get the job done, work across the aisle; I call it the can-do caucus," she said.

Kuster noted that the New Democrat Coalition has "both a policy arm and a political arm, and so one of the reasons that I was stepping down is that I was doing a great deal of travel all across the country recruiting candidates to run for the House, and then raising resources and supporting their campaigns with strategy and consultants and communications, and just spending a lot of time on it, myself, welcoming them and helping them."

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Kuster highlighted that while her party suffered major setbacks in the 2024 elections, "[A]mong the New Democrat candidates, we protected 20 out of 22 current members who were challenged in tough races. We call them the front line, and we will be welcoming 25 new members of the New Democrat coalition. It's going to be up to 110 members."

"We flipped nine seats from what we call red to blue, and most of those were won by [President-elect Donald] Trump, but our candidates outperformed the top of the ticket," she said.

Kuster said "the message that we had was successful" and that the message focused on "lowering costs, about bringing people together to get the job done. We focused in on safety and security, not just immigration and the border, but crime in the community and non-violence in the schools."

"We also talked about democracy, and we also talked about women's reproductive health, but we really leaned in on costs and the economy and where the voters have the greatest concern. And so, it's a message that I think will resonate," she added.

Kuster said she's going to spend the next two years helping fellow Democrats as they reach for the House majority in 2026.

"My north star is for the Democrats to win back the House," she said.

Kuster added that she wants to help "create the next generation of Democratic leaders" who advocate for a "center-left, pragmatic approach, working across the aisle getting the job done. I know from this cycle that that was very, very successful, and that's where we won the seats."

RYE, N.H. - EXCLUSIVE - Scott Brown is on the move.

The former senator from neighboring Massachusetts and 2014 Republican Senate nominee in New Hampshire, who later served four years as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand in President-elect Trump's first administration, is seriously considering a 2026 run to return to Congress.

If Brown moves ahead and launches a campaign in the months ahead, it would potentially set up a high-profile rematch with Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, in what would likely be a competitive and expensive Senate clash in a key swing state.

The 65-year-old Brown, who competed in nine triathlons this year and who on average performs around 40–50 gigs a year as lead singer and guitarist with the rock band Scott Brown and the Diplomats, is doing more than just thinking about running to return to the Senate.

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He's been meeting in recent weeks with various Republican and conservative groups in New Hampshire.

Brown, in a national exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, said he's doing his "due diligence, meeting with anybody and everybody. So you'll be seeing me a lot around, whether it's parades, triathlons, my rock band, meeting and getting out and really learning."

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And Brown is taking aim at New Hampshire's all-Democrat congressional delegation.

"The thing that really ticks me off is how they've basically covered up for [President] Joe Biden for the last four years, what they've done or not done on the border, what they've done and not done in inflation, and they're just completely out of touch with what we want here in New Hampshire. And the more I think about it, I think we can do better," Brown argued.

Brown made headlines in 2010 as the then-state senator in blue-state Massachusetts won a special U.S. Senate election to serve the remainder of the term of the late longtime Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy. 

After losing re-election in 2012 to now-Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Brown eventually moved to New Hampshire, the state where he had spent the first years of his childhood and where his family had roots dating back to the colonial era. He launched a Senate campaign months later and narrowly lost to Shaheen in the 2014 election.

After hosting nearly all the Republican presidential candidates in the 2016 cycle at speaking events he termed "No BS backyard BBQs," Brown eventually endorsed Trump in the weeks ahead of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary. After Trump was elected president, he nominated Brown as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand, where the former senator served for four years.

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Returning to New Hampshire at the end of the first Trump administration, Brown supported his wife Gail, a former television news reporter and anchor, as she ran for Congress in 2022. 

And the Browns also stayed politically active in other ways, once again hosting many of the Republican presidential candidates, as well as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., at their "Backyard BBQs" during the 2024 presidential cycle.

Asked in May 2023 if he'd consider another Senate run, Brown told Fox News Digital "of course."

Now, as Brown considers another Senate run, time isn't working against him.

Brown jumped in late in the 2014 campaign, just seven months before Election Day.

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This time around, he emphasized, "I have a long runway. I didn't have that obviously the first time, and I'm going to do what I have been doing for almost a decade now, going around, meeting with people participating in the process."

During his first Senate run, which came months after he changed his residency to New Hampshire, he repeatedly faced carpetbagger accusations.

Last week, a progressive group in New Hampshire took aim at Brown.

Amplify NH claimed in a release that "the gentleman from Massachusetts is clawing for another chance at power, framing himself once again as a Senate candidate for New Hampshire."

Brown says he's not concerned.

"We've had a house here for over three decades, and we've been fully engaged full-time here for over a decade. So now I think that's old news."

And he argued that New Hampshire's congressional delegation "votes 100% with Massachusetts."

While Shaheen cruised to re-election in 2020, winning by roughly 16 points, and Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan won re-election in 2022 by nearly nine points, Senate Republicans are eyeing New Hampshire in 2026 as they aim to expand their incoming 53-47 majority in the chamber. New Hampshire, along with Georgia and Michigan, will likely be heavily targeted by Senate Republicans.

Trump lost New Hampshire last month, but he cut his deficit to just three points in his face-off with Vice President Kamala Harris, down from a seven-point loss to President Biden in the Granite State in 2020.

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And the GOP kept an open gubernatorial seat in party hands – former Sen. Kelly Ayotte succeeded longtime Gov. Chris Sununu – while expanding their majorities in the New Hampshire state House and Senate.

Asked if he'd like Trump to join him on the Granite State campaign trail if he decides to run, Brown said "if he's got the time, of course."

And pointing to Trump, Brown said "not only did he help obviously, nationally, he helped here in New Hampshire."

Shaheen has yet to announce if she’ll seek another term in the Senate. That decision will likely come early in the new year.

But Shaheen, in a fundraising email to supporters on Friday, didn't sound like she was getting ready to retire.

"Democrats need to be ready to fight back" against the incoming Trump administration, she wrote. The senator added that last month's election setbacks for Democrats highlight that "early preparation has never been more important."

And Shaheen, a former three-term New Hampshire governor, is taking over next month as the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the first woman to hold one of the top two positions on the powerful panel.

Shaheen also turns 78 next month.

Asked if age would be a factor in a potential Shaheen-Brown rematch, Brown said he likes Shaheen and really appreciated her support during his confirmation as ambassador to New Zealand, but added that "that's certainly up to her."

"I'm 65. I can't believe it. I feel like I'm 40. My wife says I act like I'm like 12, he added.