We have a new Speaker of the Iowa House for the 2020 legislative session: Pat Grassley.

The grandson of Senator Chuck Grassley secured his party’s support for the top job in the House this morning. House Republicans gathered at the Statehouse around 10:00 a.m. to vote for Linda Upmeyer’s replacement. She announced last week at a similar meeting in Des Moines that she would step down as Speaker at the end of this year.

The full vote of the Iowa House will make it official in January.

Interestingly, the vote was not held immediately after Upmeyer’s announcement, despite most of the Republican legislators being in the room for that. Starting Line hears that Senator Grassley made calls this past week to help whip votes for his grandson.

House Republicans emerged from their meeting about 45 minutes after it began.

The new Republican leadership team is:

Speaker: Pat Grassley

Majority Leader: Matt Windschitl

Speaker Pro Temp: John Wills

Out of this leadership group entirely is Chris Hagenow, who had been serving as the Majority Leader. It was widely rumored that he was interested in the speaker position.

Grassley was first elected to the Iowa House in 2006 to a rural district in north-central Iowa. He was 22 years old at the time. He served as the Appropriations Chair this past session.

How long Grassley serves in the position is up for debate. There’s speculation that he will run for his grandfather’s open seat in 2022 if the senior Grassley decides to retire, as most expect. Alternatively, Democrats could retake the House by flipping four seats next November.

by Pat Rynard

Posted 10/7/19