Des Moines, Iowa — U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley administered the oath of office to his grandson, Iowa State House Speaker Pat Grassley, on Monday at the Iowa Capitol for the opening day of the state legislative session.
The elder Grassley served 16 years in the Iowa State House before his election to congress. State Representative Pat Grassley is entering his 17th year in the Iowa legislature.
The 89-year-old Grassley is entering his 43rd year in the U.S. Senate and has the most seniority of any current senator. Grassley says when he left the Iowa House in 1974, he wasn’t sure his campaign for a seat in the U.S. House would be successful, as he faced four other candidates in a GOP Primary.
Grassley had a non-malignant tumor on his left leg. Doctors at the University of Iowa used what was a new procedure at the time to transplant bone chips from Grassley’s hip into the area where bone had been removed from his lower leg.
Grassley was on crutches then, for the rest of the 1974 campaign. Grassley then served six years in the U.S. House before his election to the United States Senate in 1980.
