Iowa Senate run

Abby Finkenauer moves toward Iowa Senate run

The one-term congresswoman, who lost last November, is mulling a campaign for the seat held by GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley.

By ALLY MUTNICK and JAMES ARKIN

Former Rep. Abby Finkenauer is readying a run for GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley’s Senate seat, according to two sources familiar with her plans.

The one-term Democratic congresswoman, who lost her northeast Iowa seat to now-Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson last November, has started the process of assembling a potential campaign team.

Grassley, 87, has said he will deliberate until the fall and then decide if he’ll seek reelection. It will be difficult for Democrats to compete against Grassley if he decides to run for an eighth term, but an open seat would be more appealing if he ultimately retires.

Iowa was one of the most expensive Senate races in the country last year, but GOP Sen. Joni Ernst ultimately defeated Democrat Theresa Greenfield by nearly 7 points, and then-President Donald Trump won the state by a similar margin.

Five Republican incumbents have already announced their retirements this year, creating competitive and complicated primaries for the party, which is seeking to flip control of the 50-50 chamber. Republicans make no secret of their hope that Grassley runs again so they can avoid the loss of another incumbent.

Finkenauer, a former state representative, won her seat in 2018, ousting then-GOP Rep. Rod Blum in an anti-Trump fueled wave. She was beat two years later by Hinson, also a former state representative and TV anchor — part of a string of disappointing losses for House Democrats who predicted they would gain seats that year.

Democrats went from holding three of Iowa’s four seats after 2018 to just one. Trump carried Finkenauer’s old seat twice, but it will be redrawn ahead of the decennial redistricting.

In a sign that she hasn’t moved on from politics, Finkenauer, 32, has remained active on Twitter in recent months. She recently took aim at Grassley, slamming him for withholding support for the Jan. 6 commission legislation that passed the House.

“Seeing @ChuckGrassley take marching orders like this is just sad & disappointingly unsurprising,” she wrote in a tweet. “So much gaslighting and so little regard for truth and doing the right thing.”

Since leaving office, she’s joined the leadership council of the Next 50, a group that works to elect millennial and Gen Z Democratic candidates.

Several other Democrats are either running or contemplating bids for the seat. Dave Muhlbauer, a farmer, launched his bid earlier this week and has begun campaigning for the race. Mike Franken, a retired Navy admiral who lost a 2020 Senate primary, has also been contemplating another run.

State Auditor Rob Sand said Wednesday he was thinking about running for governor but had ruled out a run for Senate, according to the Carroll Times.