Former Iowa Rep. Abby Finkenauer announced Thursday that she is seeking the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat in Iowa, which has been held by longtime Sen. Chuck Grassley since 1981.
"I'm running for Senate because Democracy is worth fighting for and Iowa is worth fighting for," Finkenanuer said in a statement. "I believe that Iowans deserve jobs that aren't just paychecks but pay enough to build a future, health care that's affordable, and the opportunity to succeed right here at home in Iowa.”
“And I intend to get it done,” she added.
Finkenauer released a video announcing her candidacy Thursday morning in which she accused Grassley, 87, of having “lost touch” in his 46 years in Washington, D.C., dating back to 1975 when he was first elected to the House of Representatives.
Finkenauer, a former member of the Iowa House of Representatives, won a tight election in Iowa’s 1st congressional district in 2018, a district that former President Donald Trump won in 2016, beating incumbent Rod Blum with 50.9% of the vote. Finkenauer was part of the so-called “Blue Wave” in 2018 that re-took the House from Republicans, seen as a major rebuke against the Trump presidency.
But Finkenauer lost re-election in 2020, and Trump carried her district again over President Joe Biden.
Finkenauer is the highest-profile Democrat in the race, though she still faces long odds in a state Trump won twice, especially if Grassley runs for an eighth term in the Senate.
Grassley, the seven-term incumbent, has not yet decided on whether or not he will seek reelection, saying that he will make his decision by the end of 2021. Grassley will turn 89 a couple of months before Election Day 2022 — but Republicans are optimistic about his chances, with him having won his last six Senate reelection bids with more than 60% of the vote.
Grassley told Politico earlier this year that “there’s nothing I see that’s going to keep me from serving another six years if I decide to do it.”
Still, some Republicans are planning for the eventuality Grassley retires, with one even planning to run against Grassley for the Republican nomination regardless of whether or not he steps out of the race: State Sen. Jim Carlin, who represents the Sioux City area.
Carlin told the Des Moines Register in Feb. that he “appreciates” the longtime senator’s service, “as anybody does, but I didn't get in the race to drop out.”
Other possible GOP challengers could include the state’s Gov. Kim Reynolds and Grassley’s grandson Pat, the Speaker of the Iowa House.
Finkenauer blasted Grassley and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as “obsessed with power.”
"Since the Capitol was attacked, they've turned their backs on democracy and on us,” Finkenauer said of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot in a video announcing her candidacy. “They made their choice, and I am making mine: I am running for the United States Senate.”
"On Jan. 66 the world changed, and so did I," Finkenauer told the Des Moines Register in an interview. "I remember sitting on my couch in Cedar Rapids with my husband as we were watching my former colleagues and my friends get attacked in the United States Capitol.”
“That violent mob, that insurrection, was happening because our country and people were fed misinformation and lies about our elections and democracy, and our senators didn't push back,” she added.
While Grassley condemned the attack as “an attack on democracy itself,” Finkenauer says that he could have gone further in combatting Trump’s fraudulent claims about the 2020 presidential election.
“We're talking about our democratic principles here, and those are worth fighting for every single day,” she told the Register. “I intend to do it.”
Iowa, once a swing state, has trended solidly Republican in recent years, despite going for Democratic candidates in six out of the last nine elections dating back to 1988, including going blue for Barack Obama twice. The Hawkeye State’s Senate race between incumbent Sen. Joni Ernst and Democrat Theresa Greenfield was one of the most expensive in the country in the 2020 election; Ernst cruised to an easy victory.
But Finkenauer, the youngest woman to sponsor a bill that cleared the House, seems to be ready for the challenge of flipping the state, even though Democrats haven’t won a senate race in the state since 2008.
“There's so much here that our senators, in particular, and the Republicans that represent Iowa on the federal level have voted against. And all the investments that are going to come into our communities that are going to move us forward, they voted against," she told Politico. “They're not standing for anything right now."