A political vacancy thanks to President Donald Trump's administration could be an opportunity for Pat Grassley, the grandson of Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, according to The Guardian.
The senator is chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, which is investigating allegations of Trump campaign misconduct in the 2016 election. He would be a key decision maker as to whether Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. would testify in that investigation.
When Trump nominated Bill Northey, the Iowa secretary of agriculture, to undersecretary for farm production and conservation, it created a vacancy in the state that could be filled by Pat Grassley, an Iowa state congressman.
Last week, Grassley said his grandson would be the top choice to take Northey's position.
"I know darn well you expect me to support my grandson, and I am . . . I hope he'll be appointed," Grassley said in a call last week with reporters, according to The Des Moines Register.
The senator noted his grandson's experience on the family farm as well as being former chairman of Iowa's agriculture committee.
"I think, being recognized as a leader in the Legislature plus being in the farming operation, I think he would fit in very well . . . he wants it and, obviously, I'm going to advocate for him," Grassley said in The Register.
The position could be a stepping stone for the grandson, according to Laura Belin, the publisher of an Iowa political website.
"There is broad agreement among Iowa politics watchers in both parties that the Grassley family plan for many years has been for Pat Grassley to eventually take over his grandfather's Senate seat," Belin said in The Guardian.
Any apparent conflict of interest between Grassley overseeing the possibility of Trump Jr. testifying and Trump opening the vacancy is "a baseless conspiracy theory," according to Jill Gerber, Grassley's spokeswoman, in The Guardian.