DES MOINES, Iowa – U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, on Wednesday filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Committee for the 2022 U.S. Senate race.
Filing a statement with the FEC just provides his campaign committee the ability under federal law to raise funds and make expenditures.
The 87-year-old senator, who will be 89-years-old on Election Day in 2022, still will not say whether he is running for an eighth term.
“I have been pretty consistent telling the press and people privately that we are going to make that announcement September, October, or November. There really isn’t any point in making these campaigns longer,” Grassley said during a press call on Tuesday.
Should he decide to run he will have a primary opponent.
State Senator Jim Carlin, R-Sioux City, announced he would run for U.S. Senate.
The 58-year-old state lawmaker told The Iowa Torch last month that he wanted to announce early to get an edge and had been considering a run for U.S. Senate for a while, and Grassley’s decision didn’t factor in his decision to run.
“I was going to do this, whether he retired or ran again,” Carlin said.
He told The Iowa Torch that he was disappointed that Grassley didn’t do more to investigate the allegations of voter fraud made by former President Donald Trump.
“As a lawyer, if I need to see something, I just subpoena, and I get it, and I take a look at it. I want to know what the evidence is,” Carlin said. “Well, that never happened. And I’m not saying that that falls solely on the shoulders of Senator Grassley. But they should have looked at it.”
Grassley’s grandson, Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, told WHO-TV 13 Political Director Dave Price in February that he believes his grandfather is running.
“As I sit here right now, I think my grandfather is going to be running for reelection and I have not been led to believe anything otherwise,” he said.
Republicans have speculated should the elder Grassley not run for re-election that his grandson would run to replace him.
Iowa Republicans will have to wait a few more months to find out for certain.
