Senator Chuck Grassley’s chief of staff, David Young, “has reached out to Hawkeye State donors and GOP power brokers to gauge support” for a U.S. Senate campaign, Alexander Burns reported at Politico today, citing unnamed Republican sources.

Very few Iowans have heard of Young, who grew up in Van Meter (Dallas County) and has worked as a U.S. Senate staffer for the last 17 years. Burns reports that Young has been Grassley’s chief of staff for seven years and served as chief of staff for Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky before that.

Hopeful Republicans imagine that he could be a strong fundraiser if he seeks the Senate seat with the support of Grassley, a six-term incumbent and former chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. […]

Sources said that Young had been gauging support for a run even prior to [Lt. Gov. Kim] Reynolds’s decision, but her exit from the field has created a wider opening for new names and faces.

Burns’ sources say Young has “privately” told Republicans he would not run for Senate if either Representative Steve King or Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey gets in the race–more support for the theory that Senator Grassley wants Northey to run.

Grassley has previously said he doesn’t plan to endorse during the Republican primary, but that might change if his trusted staffer becomes a candidate. It takes more than strong fundraising and big endorsements to win a GOP primary in Iowa, though. Young could easily be caricatured as a creature of the Washington establishment. My guess is that the Republican base would prefer someone like Secretary of State Matt Schultz.

Share any relevant thoughts in this thread.