Perhaps a love of politics is something that can be passed from parent to child in the DNA.
Iowa’s senior U.S. senator has a fond memory of his long-gone mother on this Election Day.
As the nation marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment this year, which granted women the right to vote, Chuck Grassley says his mom was evidently an early adopter.
“About 20 years after my mother passed away, somebody gave me a picture of her voting in Cedar Falls, Iowa, almost one day after the 19th Amendment was approved,” Grassley says. “She had to be one of the first women in Iowa to cast a vote under that 19th Amendment.”
While Grassley has devoted decades to public service in state and federal governments, he finds inspiration in his mother’s dedication to casting that ballot in 1920.
“I wish I’d had a conversation with her about that, but I never remember one,” Grassley says. “My mother instilled in me the principles of being a good steward of our community, including exercising your civic duty and voting.”
The 87-year-old Grassley, who’s president pro tempore of the Senate, has spent much of his life in elected office. He won his first election, to the Iowa House, in 1959.