Former Rep. Abby Finkenauer of us-regions on Thursday declared her candidacy for the senate” target=”_blank”>Senate< for the seat currently held by seven-term Republican chuck-grassley” target=”_blank”>Sen. Chuck Grassley<
Finkenauer, an Iowa native, served as a state representative for four years before defeating GOP Rep. Rod Blum in 2018 to win a seat in the House. Her congressional victory came during a Democratic wave in which her party won back the majority in the House for the first time in eight years. But Finkenauer was narrowly defeated in her 2020 bid for reelection by Republican Ashley Hinson.
The former congresswoman was an early supporter of then-former Vice President Biden’s 2020 White House campaign. She now becomes the second Iowa Democrat to launch a 2022 Senate campaign, but she’s the most well-known. Former Crawford County supervisor Dave Muhlbauer jumped into the race in May.
What remains up in the air is whom the eventual Democratic Senate nominee will face off against in November of next year.
HALF WAY THROUGH 2021, 5 SENATORS MUM ON 2022 REELECTIONS
“I’ll be making that decision sometime this fall,” he has repeatedly said so far this year as he points to an announcement sometime likely in October or November.
Grassley – who won reelection in 2016 by nearly 25 points – currently has a healthy $2.5 million in his campaign coffers. Republican insiders tell Fox News it’s likely that Grassley, who’s 87 but who recently showed off his physical prowess by taking on Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas in a push-up competition, will run again in 2022.
Iowa GOP chair Jeff Kaufmann, following Thursday’s announcement, charged that “Iowans know Finkenauer and her disastrous record, it’s why they rejected her last November.”
“Let me be as clear as possible – Abby Finkenauer will never represent the state of Iowa in the U.S. Senate,” he predicted.
GRASSLEY’S 2022 REELECTION DECISION ANXIOUSLY AWAITED
And Grassley political committee adviser Jennifer Heins argued that Finkenauer “is too radical for Iowa” and that “Finkenauer wants Washington to control Iowans’ lives with more taxes, regulation, and big government.”
The Senate is currently split 50-50 between the two major parties, but Democrats hold a razor-thin majority in the chamber due to the tie-breaking vote of kamala-harris” target=”_blank”>Vice President Kamala Harris<
“It’s clear that he guarantees he hold that seat without much work or money,” a Republican operative who works on Senate races recently told Fox News. “If he doesn’t run, there’s a chance we’ll have to spend some money there.”
The operative, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, stressed that “Grassley is the difference between a race that is an afterthought in the broader landscape of the Senate map and one that becomes another opportunity for Democrats to try and pick up a seat.”
