Grassley to hit the trail for nearly every GOP presidential contender

Politico
January 25, 2016
By SEUNG MIN KIM

Call it the 2016 version of the “full Grassley.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the veteran Iowa Republican known for visiting all 99 of the state’s counties every year, will hit the trail this week and appear with nearly all of the remaining GOP presidential candidates, an aide said Monday.

After appearing with GOP frontrunner Donald Trump on Saturday in Pella, Iowa, Grassley will attend campaign events this week for Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

“Sen. Grassley’s committed to doing everything he can to elect a Republican president this year,” said Grassley spokeswoman Jill Gerber. “He wants to help unite Iowa Republicans so that the Republican nominee for president carries Iowa, a battleground state, in November.”

Grassley is also making plans to attend events for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Gerber said, who added that the senator offered to appear at events for every GOP candidate.

Though Grassley has endorsed in previous years — he backed former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) in 1988 and then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush in 2000 — he will not do so this year. Iowa’s junior GOP senator, Joni Ernst, is doing her own campaign swings throughout the state — she appeared with Rubio at a campaign rally in Des Moines earlier Monday.

Rubio endorsed Ernst in her crowded Senate primary in 2014, but Ernst has said she will not endorse before the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses.

Grassley will most likely be pulled off the campaign trail this week for his day job, however. The veteran Iowa senator has not missed a roll call vote on the Senate floor since 1993 — when he was in Iowa with President Bill Clinton in the aftermath of the floods that wracked his state — and the Senate is scheduled to vote on Wednesday evening.

This article was originally posted on Politico.com.