Beth, a trusty tan Hoover vacuum cleaner with a burgundy cloth dust bag that for years tended to the floors of the Iowa farmhouse of Senator Chuck Grassley, earning admirers in both parties, has died. She was believed to be 49.
The cause was apparently an electrical problem, said Mr. Grassley, a Republican who often admiringly posted images of his cleaning companion on social media around Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter and family reunions.
“U willl see Beth no more,” Mr. Grassley, 92 and the oldest senator, wrote on social media on Saturday, attaching an image that showed Beth’s electrical cord connector scarred by sparks. “See black that’s from electrical sparks. It’s not safe to use anymore. GOOD BYE BETH.”
He declared it a “sad day at Grassley household” and recalled that Beth had worked “dependably” for 34 years at his home, and for 15 years before that at his mother-in-law’s house. He wrote of Beth, “U hv been a real workhorse,” adding, “I will miss u.”
Year after year, around the holidays and during other occasions when cleaning was in order, Mr. Grassley would fire up Beth. The vacuum, he said, allowed him to make a contribution to the festivities as others in the family prepared food.
At roughly 49, Beth had been at work since before Mr. Grassley, a corn and soybean farmer, reached the Senate in 1981. The vacuum was also older than several U.S. senators.
But Beth drew public notice only in recent years, when Mr. Grassley, who has an irreverent style on social media, began to post about his vacuum. (In 2020, Mr. Grassley announced the death of a pigeon by writing on social media, “If u lost ur pet pidgin /it’s dead in front yard my Iowa farm JUST DISCOVERED.”)
Two days before Thanksgiving in 2018, Mr. Grassley wrote on social media: “Mrs G and daughter Wendy hv started big job of preparing meal for30 at farm Thxgiving. So my housework contribution begins. This is my machine (Beth).”
He made a habit of such posts.
“Faithful Beth has about 3 hours of cleaning to get ready for 25/30 grassley family,” he wrote on Christmas in 2022.
For Thanksgiving in 2023, he shared a video of Beth roaring across a rug as he pushed the vacuum and shuffled behind it.
The same year, Mr. Grassley posted an image of him and Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Republican of West Virginia, holding a cutout image of Beth. “Turns out Senator Capito is a big fan of Beth,” he wrote.
Beth had, by any measure, an extraordinarily long life for an upright vacuum cleaner. A typical vacuum might last for eight years, according to Consumer Reports, though life spans vary by brand.
Hoover says that its upright vacuums last eight years on average, and that its cordless vacuums are good for about five years on average.
Techtronic Industries, which owns Hoover, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Beth’s demise.
But within hours of Mr. Grassley’s announcement, others in politics had begun to take note, and to offer condolences.
“Sorry for your loss, Senator,” Josh Turek, a Democratic state representative in Iowa running for the state’s other Senate seat, wrote Saturday evening on social media. “Sounds like Beth had a heck of a run.”
