Iowa Democratic gubernatorial nominee Rob Sand said Monday that he would be “interested” in appointing an independent to the U.S. Senate if Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) seat becomes vacant while he’s in office.
Grassley, 92, is the oldest U.S. senator and up for re-election in 2028.
He has left the door open for a possible 2028 re-election bid.
Sand was asked how he would handle the appointment if Grassley’s seat became vacant.
“Whatever the law is in the state of Iowa, I’d want to talk to a lot of different people about it and be pretty open minded about who would go there,” Sand said.
Sand said he would lean toward selecting an independent for the job.
“I’d be interested in an independent. I think that we, you know, we have a lot of people in this state who aren’t affiliated with either party. And yet, because we have this broken two-party system and the Democratic and Republican parties give themselves special legal privileges, they’re able to force independents out as candidates and discourage them as voters too,” he said.
Watch below:
Iowa democratic nominee for governor Rob Sand says he would appoint an independent to fill Chuck Grassley’s Senate seat if a vacancy occurs
(Via Iowa News Now) pic.twitter.com/cHGnWBJgv7
— OSZ (@OpenSourceZone) September 8, 2026
More from the Washington Examiner:
While Grassley has no plans to step down from the Senate seat he’s held since 1980, at 92 years old, there is a possibility of his seat being vacated before his term ends in 2029. Under Iowa law, the governor appoints a replacement if the vacancy occurs while the Senate is in session or if the chamber will meet before the next general election.
Appealing to independents in Iowa is a must for candidates running in statewide elections. Voters who are not affiliated with either party make up about 35% of the electorate, more than the 27% of voters who are registered as Democrats. Republicans make up about 37% of registered voters in the state.
Sand has been making moves to draw himself away from the core of the Democratic Party in recent weeks. He’s said he would not want former Vice President Kamala Harris campaigning with him and has even gone as far as to say she is not the right choice for the White House in 2028.
The race for Iowa’s governor’s office is rated as “leans Democrat” by Cook Political Report. It was rated a “toss-up” between Sand and Republican candidate Zach Lahn until Aug. 20, when the nonpartisan analyst shifted the race.
Recent polling handed Sand a slight edge over Lahn, with Emerson College Polling showing a 49%-46% split in the Democrat’s favor.
“Would you want to have Joe Biden here, campaigning for you?” POLITICO senior political columnist Jonathan Martin asked the State Auditor of Iowa.
“No. Can he even do that right now? I’m sorry,” Sand responded.
“How about Kamala Harris?” Martin questioned.
“No thanks. Let’s move on. We need some new leadership,” Sand answered.
“You don’t think Harris should run in 2028?” Martin asked.
“Nope,” Sand said.
In the interview, Sand said he’s not fond of either the Republican or Democratic party.
“You’re asking a guy who was a registered independent first. I don’t tend to like the party politics stuff,” Sand explained.
“I think we have a fundamentally broken two choice political system. I don’t think that either the Democratic or the Republican parties is solving enough problems to deserve special legal privileges in order to force us to pick between the lesser of two evils,” Sand continued.
“My inclination is I want it to be shaken up,” he added.
Independent Voter News shared further:
Sand is an independent-turned-Democrat running in a state that President Donald Trump carried by more than 13 points in 2024.
He knows full well his path to victory runs directly through independent voters, so his central appeal to them is unusually literal: he is promising to let them vote in Iowa's primaries for the first time.
If Iowa elects Sand this November, it would put a serious political reformer into statewide office who favors structural changes that would give all voters the right to participate in elections regardless of political party.
An Emerson College Polling/Nexstar Media survey conducted August 2-4, 2026 found Sand leading Lahn 48 percent to 43 percent, with 7 percent undecided.
That same poll found Sand had the highest favorability of any statewide candidate it tested, at 51 percent favorable and 31 percent unfavorable.
Independent voters broke for Sand by a 26-point margin, 58 percent to 32 percent.
Those same swing voters backed Trump by roughly 17 points in 2024.
