Senator Chuck Grassley in his Washington, D.C. office.
Iowa’s two United States Senators will have new leadership roles in the Senate in 2019.
Republican Chuck Grassley has been a member of the United States Senate since January of 1981. It means when the calendar turns over to 2019, Grassley will be Republican with the longest tenure in the senate.
Because of that seniority, Grassley will become the Senate President Pro Tempore. He will be third in the line of succession to the presidency, behind the vice president and the speaker of the U.S. House.
Joni Ernst, Iowa’s other senator, today was elected vice chair of the Senate Republican Conference. She now ranks sixth on the leadership roster for Senate Republicans. She’s the first woman to be elected to Senate GOP leadership since 2010.
Senator Grassley’s staff says it’s been 100 years since an Iowan served as Senate President Pro Tempore. Albert Cummins
Senator Joni Ernst. (file photo)
had been a three-term governor before he was appointed in 1909 by the General Assembly to serve as a U.S. Senator. Cummins served in the U.S. Senate until his death in 1926.