Will Chuck Grassley Resign Before Rob Sand Takes Office as Iowa Governor?
No. Chuck Grassley is not resigning, his office says, and he does not plan to step down before Democratic Governor-elect Rob Sand takes office in January. A spokesperson for the 93-year-old Iowa senator said he plans to serve out the six-year term voters gave him in 2022, which runs through January 3, 2029.
The plain reality is in Iowa law, and it is why this question is being asked at all. A United States Senate seat opens only if the senator resigns or dies. When it opens, the governor sitting in office at that moment appoints the replacement, and that appointee serves until the next general election — in this case November 2028. Republican Governor Kim Reynolds, who did not seek re-election, stays in office until about mid-January. After that, the appointing hand belongs to Sand, the Democrat who won the governor's race on Tuesday. So the argument was never really about Grassley's health or his age. It was about which party's governor would be holding the pen if his seat ever came open.
The loudest claim came from conservative commentator Steve Deace, who posted on X on Friday: "Without question @ChuckGrassley should resign ASAP to allow @KimReynoldsIA to appoint his successor before it's too late. And it's beyond self-centered if not immoral for him not to. Father Time will eventually come for Chuck, too." Deace said he would support Reynolds appointing Grassley's grandson, Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley, and the Family Leader's Bob Vander Plaats also urged the senator to reconsider retiring. Grassley's office claims the opposite duty. "Senator Grassley is not resigning," the spokesperson said. "He remains committed to delivering for the people of Iowa, who overwhelmingly elected him to a six-year term in 2022."
"Senator Grassley is not resigning. He remains committed to delivering for the people of Iowa, who overwhelmingly elected him to a six-year term in 2022."
The common-sense principle underneath is that a term belongs to the voters who granted it. Iowans elected Grassley in 2022 knowing his age, and a senator handing his seat to a governor's appointment so his party keeps it is asking one officeholder to override that vote because the calendar turned against his side. But the consequence of his staying is exactly the outcome Grassley himself said he fears. From mid-January, if his seat opens for any reason before the term ends, a Democratic governor will choose a Republican senator's replacement, to serve until November 2028 — in a Senate that Democrats take over in January, where every seat carries weight. Which leaves the question that follows from his answer: the resignation fight is settled, so can a 93-year-old's health be counted on until January 3, 2029 — and if it cannot, will Sand keep his word?
The details that matter for clarity: Grassley, who turned 93 on September 17, is the oldest person in Congress and has sat in the Senate since 1981. He chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee today and loses that chair when the Democratic majority arrives. He would be 95 when his term ends. He has not announced whether he will run again in 2028 and says he will decide in 2027. The names raised for a Reynolds appointment were his grandson Pat Grassley and U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson, whose time in the House is ending after she lost Iowa's open Senate race to Democrat Josh Turek. And Sand's own position is already on the record: speaking to Iowa News Now in September, before he won the race we reported here, he said he would "be interested in an independent" to fill an Iowa Senate vacancy during his term. Grassley had put the whole matter in his own words back in September, on the campaign trail: "I don't plan on dying in office, but if I did, I don't want a Democratic governor choosing my successor."