Chuck Grassley tests positive for COVID-19

The longest-serving Republican in the Senate and third in line for the presidency, Grassley announced Tuesday that he has tested positive for COV ID-19. He entered quarantine Tuesday morning after finding out he had been exposed to the virus.

Katie Goodale

U.S Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, speaks with reporters during a press conference at Mercy Hospital on July 2, 2019.

Caleb McCullough, Politics Editor


Sen. Chuck Grassley, the longest-serving Republican in the U.S. Senate and third in line for the presidency, announced Tuesday he tested positive for COVID-19.

Grassley, 87, said in a statement that a test he received in the morning came back positive, though he said he wasn’t having any symptoms.

“This morning, I learned that I had been exposed to the coronavirus. I received a COVID-19 test and immediately began to quarantine,” Grassley wrote in the statement. “While I still feel fine, the test came back positive for the coronavirus. I am continuing to follow my doctors’ orders and CDC guidelines.”

Grassley is the Senate’s oldest Republican and president pro tempore of the Senate.

Grassley entered quarantine Tuesday morning, after announcing he was exposed to the virus. His office did not say how the exposure happened.

While in quarantine, Grassley broke a 27-year streak of not missing a vote in the Senate, the longest streak for a senator in history. The last time Grassley missed a vote was in 1993, according to his office, when assisting with flood damage in Iowa.

In October, Grassley didn’t get a coronavirus test after attending a meeting with Sen. Mile Lee, R-Utah, who had tested positive for COVID-19, because they had maintained social distance.

Five other Republicans in the U.S. Senate have tested positive for COVID-19 over the last couple of months, along with President Trump and other White House senior staff.