- Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and a seven-term senator re-elected in 2022 at age 89 by 27 points — the oldest serving member of Congress and the longest-serving Republican senator in history.
- Iowa is R+15 — a state that voted for Obama twice before swinging hard to Trump in 2016, and Grassley has won every election since 1974 by building a personal brand of constituent service and annual soybean planting.
- He served as Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee during two different periods and has been one of the most consequential senators for federal judicial confirmations — including overseeing the confirmation of three Trump Supreme Court nominees.
- Grassley is known for whistleblower protection and government oversight — co-authoring the False Claims Act reforms in 1986 and consistently pushing for transparency regardless of which party controls the White House.
Biography
Charles Ernest Grassley was born on September 17, 1933, in New Hartford, Iowa, a small farming community in Chickasaw County. He grew up on a farm, graduated from the University of Northern Iowa (then Iowa State Teachers College) with a bachelor’s degree in 1955 and a master’s degree in political science in 1956, and worked as a sheet metal worker and factory worker before entering politics. He was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives in 1958 and served six terms there before winning a seat in the US House of Representatives in 1974, representing Iowa’s 3rd congressional district.
He served three terms in the House (1975–1981) before defeating Democratic incumbent John Culver for his Senate majority in the 1980 Republican wave election that brought Ronald Reagan to the presidency. He has been returned to the Senate in every subsequent election — 1986, 1992, 1998, 2004, 2010, 2016, and 2022 — with margins ranging from a comfortable 7 points in 1992 to landslide victories in other cycles. His 2022 reelection at age 89 was remarkable: he won by 27 points in a year when Iowa had already firmly established itself as a deep-red state. If he seeks and wins an eighth term in 2026, he would be the oldest senator ever elected.
Grassley continues to work a schedule that would challenge politicians decades his junior. He has maintained a personal commitment to visiting all 99 Iowa counties every year since his first Senate term, a constituent service tradition that has become one of the most famous regular practices in American politics. His physical fitness regimen is well-documented; he jogs daily and credits regular exercise for his longevity in public life.
Key Policy Areas
FOIA & Oversight
Grassley is perhaps the Senate’s foremost champion of government transparency and the Freedom of Information Act. He has been consistent across administrations of both parties in demanding access to government documents, protecting whistleblowers, and investigating waste, fraud, and abuse in federal programs. His oversight work has frequently put him in conflict with executive branch officials from both parties who prefer to limit congressional scrutiny. He has championed the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act and other legislation protecting federal employees who report wrongdoing.
Agriculture & Farm Policy
As Iowa’s senior senator, Grassley has been a consistent voice for commodity farmers in US agricultural policy. He has worked on every farm bill since his arrival in the Senate, advocating for commodity programs, crop insurance, conservation measures, and trade policy that protects Iowa’s soybean, corn, and pork exports. He has expressed concern about Chinese tariff retaliation against US agricultural exports under the current tariff regime, reflecting the direct economic impact on his constituents. He has also been a champion of ethanol and renewable fuels standard policy, critical to Iowa’s corn-based ethanol industry.
Judiciary & SCOTUS
Grassley chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2015 to 2019, overseeing one of the most consequential stretches of Supreme Court confirmation history. Under his chairmanship, the committee declined to hold hearings for Merrick Garland in 2016 (with Majority Leader McConnell’s leadership), then confirmed Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 — the latter after contentious hearings involving Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony. Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed in 2020 before the election, completing a significant rightward shift in the Court’s composition that represents a defining legacy of the Trump years and Republican Senate strategy.
Grassley’s Iowa Senate Career: Eight Decades of Winning Margins
| Year | Grassley (R) | Democratic Opponent | Margin | Age at Election |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 53.5% | Culver (incumbent) 45.4% | R+8.1 | 47 |
| 1986 | 66.0% | Lind 34.0% | R+32.0 | 53 |
| 1992 | 69.6% | Lloyd-Jones 29.8% | R+39.8 | 59 |
| 1998 | 67.7% | Conlin 29.0% | R+38.7 | 65 |
| 2004 | 70.2% | Small 27.0% | R+43.2 | 71 |
| 2010 | 64.5% | Conlin 33.2% | R+31.3 | 77 |
| 2016 | 60.2% | Judge 35.8% | R+24.4 | 83 |
| 2022 | 63.6% | Franken 36.1% | R+27.5 | 89 |
| 2026 | TBD | TBD | Safe R if runs | 93 |
2026: Iowa Institution or End of an Era?
The 2026 Iowa Senate majority hinges entirely on whether Grassley runs. If he runs, he is a heavy favorite: Iowa is R+12, Grassley has 99-county retail politics infrastructure built over decades, and no Democrat has won a statewide race in Iowa since 2012. His 2022 win by 27 points at age 89 demonstrates that Iowa voters are willing to overlook age concerns in favor of incumbency and seniority.
If he does not run, Iowa is still Safe Republican but becomes an interesting open-seat primary. Governor Kim Reynolds, popular with Iowa Republicans but constitutionally term-limited as governor in 2026, would be an immediate top-tier candidate. Other Iowa Republicans including state legislators and former officials would enter the field. The general election in an open Iowa race would remain strongly Republican-favored regardless of the candidate.
The philosophical question hanging over a potential Grassley eighth-term run is whether a senator who would be 95 at the end of the term in January 2033 can effectively represent Iowans for six years. The Dianne Feinstein precedent — she died in office at 90 in her fourth year after her last reelection — is present in discussions, though Grassley’s health and cognitive sharpness have been more consistently demonstrated than Feinstein’s in her final years.
