Kent Conrad, the Senate Democrat from North Dakota, announced today that he will not seek reelection in 2012.  Unlike the earlier announcement from Sen Joe Lieberman, this comes as bad news to the Democrats.  When Democrat Byron Dorgan decided not to run for reelection to North Dakota’s other senate seat in 2010, Republican John Hoeven captured the seat with a whopping 76% of the vote.  North Dakota is a squarely Republican state when it comes to national politics and without Conrad on the ballot the Democrats have little chance of holding on to the seat.  No Republican has formally thrown their hat into the ring yet.

There are 33 Senate seats up for election in 2012.  Democrats hold 22 and Republicans hold 11, compounding an already difficult election cycle for the Democrats.