![\"Chairman](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/19885402_092826-cc-getty-chuck-grassley-img.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nIowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, the oldest sitting U.S. senator, lamented the possibility that a Democratic governor could appoint his successor if he were to die in office, according to video of remarks he delivered late last week.<\/p>\n
“At 93 years of age, I don’t know how many more groups of Republicans like this I\u2019m going to have a chance to talk to,” Grassley said on Friday during the GOP’s annual Reagan Dinner in West Des Moines. “But I want to take advantage of it. But one of the reasons I’m worried about who’s going to be elected governor — I don\u2019t plan on dying in office — but if I did, I don\u2019t want a Democrat governor choosing my successor.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Sen. Chuck Grassley presides over a hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Sept. 23, 2026, in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
Kevin Dietsch\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Grassley, who celebrated his 93rd birthday on Sept. 17, is currently serving in his eighth term in the Senate — set to expire Jan. 3, 2029.<\/p>\n
If Grassley were to die in the next two years, the next governor of Iowa — set to be elected this fall — would make a temporary appointment to fill the seat until the 2028 election.<\/p>\n
A\u00a0late June Fox News poll<\/a>\u00a0found Democrat Rob Sand, Iowa’s state auditor, with a 9-point lead over Republican Zach Lahn among registered voters in the state. A\u00a0New York Times\/Siena poll<\/a>\u00a0conducted around the same time found a much closer contest with the candidates essentially neck-and-neck among likely voters.<\/p>\n Grassley has not announced whether he will seek a ninth term in the Senate in 2028.<\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2026 ABC News Internet Ventures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, the oldest sitting U.S. senator, lamented the possibility that a Democratic governor could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":864184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[364560,4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-864183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-364560","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}