Chuck Grassley

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The Iowa Republican was first elected to the Senate in 1980, and has said he plans to wait until 2027 before deciding on a ninth term.

The oldest sitting member of Congress is brushing aside calls to retire following the Republican Party’s historic drubbing in Tuesday’s midterm elections.

A spokesperson for Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told the Washington Examiner in a statement Wednesday that the 93-year-old “is not resigning,” despite some GOP voters’ hopes he would do so to allow the state’s outgoing Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, to choose his replacement.

“He remains committed to delivering for the people of Iowa, who overwhelmingly elected him to a six-year term in 2022,” the spokesperson said.

Grassley, who was first elected to the Senate in 1980, will be 95 in 2028. At a Republican event in September, the senator hinted at his personal concerns about a Democratic victory in his state’s gubernatorial race.

“At 93 years of age, I don’t know how many more groups of Republicans like this I’m going to have the chance to talk to. I want to take advantage of it,” he said at the time. “One of the reasons that I’m worried about who’s going to be elected governor... I don’t plan on dying in office, but if I did, I don’t want a [Democratic] governor choosing my successor.”

Sen. @ChuckGrassley (R-IA): "One of the reasons that I'm worried about who's going to be elected governor, I don't plan on dying in office but if I did, I don't want a Democrat governor choosing my successor." pic.twitter.com/YuIZytnt35

In October, Grassley said he’d wait until 2027 before making any decisions about running for a ninth term, noting: “I’m concentrating on this year’s election to get my fellow Republicans elected.”

On Tuesday, however, Iowa voters chose Democrat Rob Sand to be their state’s next governor. Sand, Iowa’s state auditor since 2019, defeated Republican opponent Zach Lahn and will become the Hawkeye State’s first Democratic governor since 2006.

Tuesday’s midterms have been widely interpreted as a major rebuke of Trump’s second term, and as of Thursday, Democrats had secured a 10-seat advantage over Republicans in the U.S. Senate.

On Thursday, The New Republic said Grassley’s remarks were indicative of “the gerontocracy that plagues Congress, particularly in the Senate.”

“A 93-year-old should be spending their time with their family and friends, ruminating on the long life they’ve been blessed to live,” the outlet noted. “Instead, Grassley is letting his own ego and interests fuel him, and it’s placed the Senate in a precarious position for Republicans in the event of his passing—especially given the state’s new Democratic governor.”