Iowa's Chuck Grassley, the oldest sitting member of the U.S. Senate, told Republicans at a party dinner that he does not want a Democratic governor picking his successor if he dies in office. The 93-year-old senator made the comments at the GOP's annual Reagan Dinner in West Des Moines on September 25, days after presiding over a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing back in Washington.
Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee and is serving his eighth term, said he does not plan on dying in office, but as reported by 6abc, he wanted Iowans to understand the stakes of this fall's governor's race regardless. His current term runs through January 3, 2029, and whoever Iowa elects governor this November would be the one to make a temporary appointment to fill his seat should he leave office before then, with that appointee serving until the 2028 election settles the seat permanently.
That scenario is possible because Iowa's governor makes a temporary appointment to fill a vacant Senate seat. Rules vary by state: the National Conference of State Legislatures counts 11 states, including Arizona and North Carolina, that require a governor to appoint someone from the same party as the outgoing senator.
A Rare but Real Precedent
Gubernatorial Senate appointments in Iowa are rare enough that the last one happened 90 years ago. Radio Iowa's report notes that Iowa has not seen an interim Senate appointment since 1936, when the governor filled the seat left vacant by the death of Senator Richard Murphy in a car accident. It is a scenario Iowa voters have not had to reckon with in generations, which is part of why Grassley is raising it now.
This is also not the first time Grassley has made a similar argument. Per the same Radio Iowa report, he made a similar statement to Iowa voters in October 2018 at age 85. Reynolds went on to win and serve two terms before announcing in April 2025 that she would not seek reelection, a decision that opened up Iowa's first open-seat governor's race since 2017, according to Iowa Starting Line.
A Tighter-Than-Expected Governor's Race
Filling that open seat are State Auditor Rob Sand, Iowa's only statewide elected Democrat, and businessman Zach Lahn, who defeated U.S. Representative Randy Feenstra in a June 2026 primary upset, per the Brookings Institution. Polling on the race has been mixed: a late-June Fox News poll found Sand leading Lahn by 9 points among registered Iowa voters, while a New York Times/Siena poll conducted the same month found the two candidates essentially tied among likely voters, according to 6abc's reporting. Nonpartisan handicappers have since shifted their ratings toward Sand, while National Journal has ranked Iowa among the country's top pickup opportunities for Democrats this cycle.
Grassley has not said whether he intends to seek a ninth Senate term in 2028, and 6abc's report does not indicate he offered any timeline beyond insisting he does not expect to die in office. At 93, he is the oldest sitting U.S. senator. He celebrated his 93rd birthday on September 17.
Other States Have Moved to Close the Loophole
Iowa is not the only state grappling with how much power a governor should have over Senate vacancies. Kentucky revised its own law in 2024 to require a special election instead of a temporary gubernatorial appointment, according to a report from LEX18. In Iowa, the governor makes a temporary appointment to a vacant Senate seat.
