Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is 93 and has filed to run for another six-year term in 2028.
Grassley has held elected office since 1959 and has sat in the Senate since 1981. He's the longest-serving Republican in the history of Congress and one of the longest-serving senators of all time. As Senate president pro tempore, he's also third in line for the presidency. His eighth term runs through Jan. 3, 2029, and if he were to win a ninth, he'd be in office until he's 101.
Sen. Chuck Grassley Files for 2028 Re-Election; Would Be 101 by End of Term https://t.co/xvr4WQqTcY
— NewsWire (@NewsWire_US) October 11, 2026
I'm honestly not sure whether this means he’s definitely going to run again or is just filing paperwork. But if he does run, it's a bad idea.
A really, really bad idea.
Grassley made that case himself just last month.
Speaking at an Iowa GOP event in West Des Moines on September 25, he urged Republicans to turn out for the party’s nominee for governor in November, and explained what was weighing on him.
"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 one 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.
His concern has a legal basis.
Under Iowa law, the governor picks a temporary replacement when a Senate seat opens up, and that appointee serves until voters choose a permanent successor at the next general election. Currently, polls suggest that Democrat Rob Sand is favored over Republican Zach Lahn, as Sand has a +8.4 lead in the RealClearPolitics average.
Grassley issued a similar warning in October 2018, when he was 85 and Gov. Kim Reynolds (R-Iowa) was fighting for a full term in a close race. Reynolds survived and cruised to reelection in 2022. No Iowa governor has had to fill a Senate vacancy since 1936, after Sen. Richard Murphy of Dubuque died in a car accident.
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In fairness, Grassley, to the best that I can tell, is healthy, though I haven’t seen a recent clip of him. But who cares if he is? His advanced age makes seeking reelection problematic, and his comments last month make it clear that even he acknowledges that. At the time, he hadn't said whether he'd run again.
That question appears to have been answered, and the answer is the wrong one.
Republicans already know how this goes. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) disappeared from the Senate over the summer, and the lack of transparency around it was troubling. His staff dodged basic questions about his condition. Considering McConnell's other well-documented health problems, their silence was entirely unacceptable.
Grassley needs to let it go and retire.
Let's be honest here. Throughout Joe Biden's so-called presidency, Republicans demanded transparency about his health, and for good reason. Democrats and the White House were obviously lying to us. McConnell's office spent the summer doing the same thing.
And McConnell's absence had consequences. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman (R-Ark.) needed McConnell's vote to move his farm bill out of committee. Without it, and with every Democrat on the panel opposed, the bill stalled. When McConnell returned, he still didn’t look healthy enough to serve. At least he's leaving office in January.
Democrats have their own cautionary tale — and I’m not talking about Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) clung to her seat when she clearly couldn't perform her duties anymore, and it became a huge problem for her party.
So if Grassley does follow through and ultimately seeks reelection, I hope a Republican challenges him in a primary. Make no mistake about it, a Senate seat is a job, and the people who hold one owe voters the ability to do it for the full term. Conservatives spent years calling out a party that put pride and ambition ahead of the country's interests and lied about it to everyone's face. After what Democrats did with Joe Biden, Republicans should be better than this.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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