GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley to Undergo Surgery After Injuring Hip

Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) speaks during a committee business meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 28, 2022. Susan Walsh/AP Photo

Update: “My hip surgery today to repair a fracture was very successful. On my way to a full recovery,” Grassley said on Twitter on Jan. 11.

Original story below

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Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who was elected in November to serve an eighth term in the Senate, is set to undergo surgery this week after sustaining an injury on Jan. 10, his office has announced.

A statement from his office said he “hurt his hip” but “is otherwise in good spirits and is expected to make a full recovery.”

The lawmaker’s office did not provide further details as to how the 89-year-old became injured, or what type of surgery he will be having.

Grassley is one of the longest-serving senators in U.S. history, having held one of Iowa’s Senate seats since 1981, and has the most seniority of any current senator. The lawmaker has never received less than 60 percent of the votes in his re-election bids.

He was sworn into the new term on Jan. 3 after comfortably beating retired Navy admiral Michael Franken, a Democrat, in last year’s elections.

Grassley is also the oldest Republican senator and the second oldest senator. California Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Republican, is also 89 but was born about three months before Grassley.

Despite his age, Grassley previously said he maintains a healthy and active lifestyle which includes waking up at 4 a.m. in the morning and jogging for two miles before arriving at work.

“My age comes up, and this morning I got up at four o’clock like I do six times a week and jogged two miles,” Grassley told reporters during a conference call in February 2021 when he was weighing up whether or not to pursue an eighth term in the U.S. Senate.

Grassley Says Leg Was Nearly Amputated

“If I can do that every day, I hope nobody has any questions about my ability to conduct a campaign. It’ll be up to the voters to decide whether or not I should be re-elected, but I hope they won’t say I can’t conduct a campaign,” the Senator said.

Grassley later went on to announce his re-election bid by sharing a video of himself waking up at 4 a.m. and going for his regular run.

Prior to sustaining his injury on Tuesday, Grassley appeared Monday at the opening day of the 2023 session of the Iowa Legislature, where he administered the oath of office to his grandson, Pat Grassley, who is the Speaker of the Iowa House.

During Monday’s session, Grassley told local radio show KJAN that he had previously had surgery on his left leg after doctors discovered a non-malignant tumor. The surgery at the time involved translating bones from his hip into the area where bone had been removed from his lower leg.

“I had to wait two days to decide whether they were going to amputate my leg or take care of it another way,” Grassley said. “Now, if you saw it on X-rays, you’d just see a little mark around where they grafted it in. But they took more than two-thirds of the bone below the knee.”

Grassley’s fellow Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican, led well wishes for him on Tuesday, posting to Twitter: “join me in praying for a speedy recovery for Chuck Grassley. I know he’ll be back on his 4 a.m. running routine in no time!”

Iowa congresswoman Rep. Ashley Hinson, also a Republican, said she was praying “for a full and speedy recovery for Senator Chuck Grassley.”

“I know he’ll be back to his morning runs in no time,” Hinson added.