Grassley says Republicans need to get ‘cranked up’ on social media for midterms

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley stumped for Iowa Republican candidates in Iowa Wednesday morning and urged members of the party to amplify their voices on social media to encourage the state’s dominant registered base to vote in November. 

Grassley, speaking at the Westside Conservative Club, said if there are Republicans who feel Iowa’s current all-conservative delegation “didn’t deliver enough in Washington, D.C.,” they should “get over it.”

“For the simple reason that the alternative, of a Democrat from Iowa in the United States Senate, is for Chuck Schumer to lead the United States Senate, and you know how disastrous that would be,” Grassley said. 

Grassley’s comments come as several of Iowa’s congressional races, including the race for the Senate seat next to Grassley, are considered toss-ups by pollsters. Democrats would need to gain four Senate seats to flip the current Republican majority.

Grassley said the “alternative” to a Republican majority would look like the Democratic Socialist of America platform with policies like: “open borders, alternative to prisons, defund the police, non-citizens voting.” 

“I don’t know to what extent you folks are on social media, but I know social media has a big impact on the election,” Grassley said. “So you better get on your social media and get people cranked up to see what the alternative is.”

Democratic candidates running for Iowa’s congressional seats do not identify with or have endorsements from the Democratic Socialist of America. 

Grassley, who has been a member of Congress since 1974 and a senator since 1980, said he felt a “responsibility” to “spend the month of October helping as many Republican candidates as (he) can.” 

He has joined Republicans along the campaign trail including Zach Lahn, who is running for governor; U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, running for Senate, and U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, who is running for reelection and joined Grassley at the Westside Conservative Club. 

Nunn said the 3rd Congressional District, covering Des Moines and southwestern Iowa, is the “linchpin” to winning the majority in Congress and the Iowa governor’s mansion.

“Do not count a single Republican in Iowa out, because not only do we have the energy, we’ve got the candidates, we’ve got the policy, and we have a history of delivering to help Iowa and America – and God forbid we ever lose that,” Nunn said.

Grassley said Republicans need to “pull together” to get Lahn elected governor because the state would otherwise be subjected to the “distress, debt, and doom” that he said comes with Democratic governors. 

Speculation circulated online this week that 93-year-old Grassley had filed paperwork to run for reelection in 2028, but Grassley clarified Tuesday, in an interview with Iowa’s News Now, that he was not going to make a decision about running for reelection until next year. 

Iowa has more than 713,000 active, registered Republicans and more than 533,000 active registered Democrats, according to October figures from the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office. Grassley said Republicans have the numbers on their side. 

“It’s just obvious if we show up,” Grassley said. 

Grassley defends members of the White House media

In response to a question posed by a member at the club meeting Wednesday, Grassley said the news media are the “policemen of our political system.” 

“The fact is, some of them on both the right and the left, are poorly ideologically organized for their own point of view, and that’s what makes things bad,” Grassley said.

Grassley said freedom of the press should be respected.

“That’s why the president shouldn’t kick three of them out of the White House,” Grassley said.

At the end of September, President Donald Trump blocked reporters from CNN, MS Now and Politico from entering White House grounds. The situation is now being weighed by a federal court, which this week allowed the three news organizations to continue White House access while the case proceeds.