Grassley announces reelection bid

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Friday announced that he’s running for reelection in 2022, seeking an eighth term in the upper chamber.

Grassley made the announcement on Twitter at 4 a.m., with a GIF of him going out for a morning run. 

“It’s 4 a.m. in Iowa so I’m running. I do that 6 days a week. Before I start the day I want you to know what Barbara and I have decided,” Grassley tweeted. “I’m running for re-election—a lot more to do, for Iowa. We ask and will work for your support. Will you join us?”

It’s 4 a.m. in Iowa so I’m running. I do that 6 days a week. Before I start the day I want you to know what Barbara and I have decided.

I’m running for re-election—a lot more to do, for Iowa. We ask and will work for your support. Will you join us? #GrassleyRuns #GrassleyWorks pic.twitter.com/cwv8yu9wkx

— Grassley Works (@GrassleyWorks) September 24, 2021

The Des Moines Register reported that the senator is set to take part in a number of campaign events on Friday and will appear with Gov. Kim Reynolds (R), who is also seeking reelection, on Saturday. 

The news comes after Grassley remained mum for months on his reelection plans despite national Republicans urging the 88-year-old to jump into the race. Grassley won his last reelection bid in 2016 by a whopping 25 points. 

The GOP is looking to take back the Senate next year and will lean on the longtime senator in that fight. 

Grassley will likely face former Rep. Abby Finkenauer (D-Iowa) in the general election. Recent polling shows Grassley leading Finkenauer by a wide margin. According to a Des Moines Register-Mediacom Iowa poll released on Tuesday, the veteran senator leads the former congresswoman 55 percent to 37 percent.

A separate Des Moines Register-Mediacom survey released in June showed that 64 percent of Iowans think it’s time for someone else to hold Grassley’s seat, but that poll did not name any specific candidates.

Finkenauer responded to Grassley’s reelection campaign launch in a statement on Friday, taking aim at his decades in Congress.

“After 47 years in Washington, D.C., Chuck Grassley has changed from an Iowa farmer to just another coastal elite. Over his nearly five decades in Congress, Iowa has lost over 30,000 family farms, our jobs have been shipped overseas, and decade after decade our rural communities have been hollowed out with our young people leaving in droves as he stood on the sideline,” Finkenauer said. 

“Meanwhile, Senator Grassley and his friends in the DC elite got richer while working families were left behind. Now, he’s running yet again on an agenda that puts big pharma over our seniors, Wall Street over workers, and monopoly corporations over the mom and pop small businesses that make Iowa strong.”

Updated at 9:40 a.m.