2004 United States Senate election in Iowa

The 2004 United States Senate election in Iowa was held on November 2, 2004. Incumbent Republican Chuck Grassley ran for re-election to a fifth term. Grassley and former State Senator Arthur A. Small won the Republican and Democratic primaries, respectively, unopposed, and faced each other in the general election. Though this election coincided with the highly competitive presidential race, Grassley was not considered vulnerable and defeated Small in a landslide, winning more than 70% of the vote and outperforming Republican President George W. Bush by over 20% and almost 300,000 votes.

2004 United States Senate election in Iowa

← 1998 November 2, 2004 2010 →

Nominee Chuck Grassley Arthur A. Small Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 1,038,175 412,365 Percentage 70.18% 27.88%

County results Grassley:      50-60%      60-70%      70-80%      80-90%      >90%

U.S. senator before election Chuck Grassley Republican Elected U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley Republican

As of 2026, this is the last time a Republican Senate candidate won Johnson County. This is also the last time that the winning U.S. Senate candidate in Iowa carried all 99 counties.

Democratic primary

Candidates

• Arthur A. Small, attorney, lobbyist, and former Iowa State Senator

Results

Democratic primary results

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Arthur A. Small	52,318	99.25%
	Democratic	Write-ins	398	0.75%
Total votes			52,716	100.00%

Republican primary

Candidates

• Chuck Grassley, incumbent United States Senator

Results

Republican primary results

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Chuck Grassley (Incumbent)	78,819	99.72%
	Republican	Write-ins	218	0.28%
Total votes			79,037	100.00%

General election

Predictions

Source	Ranking	As of
Sabato's Crystal Ball	Safe R	November 1, 2004

Debate

2004 Iowa United States Senate election debate

No.	Date	Host	Moderator	Link	Republican	Democratic
Key:  P  Participant   A  Absent   N  Not invited   I  Invited  W  Withdrawn
					Chuck Grassley	Arthur A. Small
1	Oct. 22, 2004	Iowa Public Television	Dean Borg	C-SPAN	P	P

Results

United States Senate election in Iowa, 2004

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Chuck Grassley (Incumbent)	1,038,175	70.18%	+1.77%
	Democratic	Arthur A. Small	412,365	27.88%	−2.62%
	Libertarian	Christy Ann Welty	15,218	1.03%
	Green	Daryl A. Northrop	11,121	0.75%
	Socialist Workers	Edwin Fruit	1,874	0.13%	−0.14%
	Write-ins		475	0.03%
Majority			625,810	42.31%	+4.39%
Turnout			1,479,228
	Republican hold		Swing

See also

• 2004 United States Senate elections