U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley leads committee hearing in March, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Grassley's US Senate office)
Senator Chuck Grassley is urging Iowa Republicans to vote for the GOP candidate for governor, for a very specific reason.
“At 93 years of age, I don’t know how many more groups of Republicans like this I’m going to have a chance to talk to, but once of the reasons I’m worried about who’s going to be elected governor — I don’t plan on dying in office, but if I did, I don’t want a Democratic governor choosing my successor,” Grassley said Friday night during an Iowa GOP event in West Des Moines.
Grassley made a similar statement in October of 2018 when he was 85 years old and Republican Governor Kim Reynolds was in a tight race to win a full term as governor. Reynolds easily won re-election in 2022. Democrat Rob Sand and Republican Zach Lahn are in a competitive race for governor this year. Under state law, Iowa’s governor makes a temporary appointment to the U.S. Senate to fill a vacancy until a permanent replacement is selected by voters in the next General Election.
Grassley was re-elected to an eighth term in the U.S. Senate in 2022. The term expires on January 3, 2029. Grassley, the longest serving current member of the senate, has not said whether he intends to seek reelection.
1936 was the last time an Iowa governor filled a vacancy in the U.S. Senate, after Senator Richard Murphy of Dubuque was killed in a car accident.