In the latest sign that the GOP believes New Hampshire’s U.S. Senate seat is in play for 2026, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has released an ad targeting Sen. Jeanne Shaheen over her defense of foreign aid and USAID.

The ad, which is scheduled for release on Friday, features a clip from an interview Shaheen gave in which she accused supporters of the Department of Government Efficiency of using “made up” examples of waste and abuse.

The ad then follows with a list of those examples, all of which have been confirmed as federal expenditures by left-of-center outlets like The New York Times and Daily Kos, as well as USAID itself in some instances.

 

Among the examples of wasteful spending featured in the ad:

  • $20 million for Iraqi Sesame Street;
  • $2 million for Moroccan pottery classes;
  • $27 million for gift bags to be given to illegal aliens;
  • $9 million in USAID aid to Syria that went to Al Qaeda;
  • USAID Funding for an LGBT rights group in Serbia.

Shaheen has long been an outspoken supporter of taxpayer-funded foreign aid, arguing that it promotes America’s national security. “Foreign assistance is critical to our national security and economic strength,” Shaheen has said.

Earlier this month, the New Hampshire senator hosted a roundtable with fellow Democrats like Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sarah Charles, a former USAID official. Its purpose was to “highlight the national security implications of halting U.S. foreign assistance and dismantling the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).”

And after news broke of the Trump team’s plans to shut down the entire agency, Shaheen used the Foreign Relations Committee’s social media page to post a message.

“The soft power of USAID and U.S. humanitarian assistance is our strength, not our weakness. We must #SaveUSAID.”

Shaheen’s pro-foreign-aid stance even includes supporting funding for the terrorism-linked UNRWA organization (The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East).

UNRWA’s support for Hamas has been well documented, sparking investigations in both the U.S. and in Europe. In August, UNRWA was forced to fire nine employees over their participation in the Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack after Israeli intelligence showing the connections was made public.

When Trump stopped funding UNRWA, Shaheen signed a letter expressing her “strong opposition” and calling for the $200 million tax dollars to be restored. And just six months ago, Shaheen celebrated her success in getting  $3.6 billion into the foreign operations budget—a $174 million year-to-year increase. That included “robust support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).”

This is after widespread reporting at the time of UNRWA employees publicly praising Hamas, UNRWA teachers using schoolbooks teaching antisemitism and promoting anti-Israel violence, and UNRWA staffers going on strike in support of Hamas.

Shaheen continues to support UNRWA funding today, even after Hamas released the bodies of two children killed after being taken hostage by the terrorist organization on Oct. 7. Hamas locked the bodies in coffins, marched them in front of their cheering supporters, then handed the locked coffins the Red Cross — but gave them the wrong keys.

Late Thursday, Israel announced that the body presented as that of the children’s mother — also killed after being taken hostage — was not the mother but an “anonymous and unidentified” corpse.

Shaheen’s strong support for foreign aid spending and agencies like UNRWA are almost certain to be flashpoints in a 2026 U.S. Senate race if Shaheen decides to seek a fourth term. Her likely GOP opponent, former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, published an op-ed Thursday supporting the USAID cuts. He argues cutting wasteful spending should be a bipartisan cause.

“Remember Bill Clinton’s 1996 promise that the era of big government is over? Even Barack Obama launched a ‘Campaign to Cut Waste.’”

“Today’s Democratic Party is far from those days and even further from common sense. They believe the status quo and spending money like a drunken sailor, as the late John McCain was fond of saying, is perfectly acceptable.”

The NRSC certainly thinks so. Their aid concludes with the message, “Retire Jeanne Shaheen. Stop wasting our money.”