Chuck Grassley has been a Senator for 41 years, but the 89-year-old Republican may be facing his toughest re-election this year against Democrat Mike Franken, a retired admiral.
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A new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows Grassley leads with 46% of the vote to Franken’s 43% among likely voters. Another 4% would vote for someone else, 4% would not vote and 3% are not sure...
But the poll indicates weaknesses for Grassley beyond his head-to-head race with Franken.
His job disapproval rating is a record high for him in the Iowa Poll. The percentage of Iowans who view him unfavorably also hit a peak. And nearly two-thirds of likely voters say the senator’s age is a concern rather than an asset.
According to the poll, Franken is still unknown to more than a third of Iowa voters, with 37% saying they don’t know how they feel about him. Nearly all Iowa voters know of Grassley with only 7% not knowing how they feel about the Senator. The fact that less than 50% support Grassley should be worrying Republicans.
Franken has improved his performance since July, when a previous Iowa Poll showed Grassley leading by eight percentage points, 47% to 39%.
Independents are supporting Franken by 46% to 35% as are 93% of Democrats. Some 90% of Republicans are supporting Grassley.