State Senator Sarah Trone Garriott is running for the Democratic nomination in Iowa’s third congressional district, which Republican Zach Nunn has represented since 2023.
Trone Garriott of West Des Moines is a Lutheran pastor who has served in the Iowa legislature since 2021. In a fundraising email released at 7 a.m. this morning, Trone Garriott said she’s running for congress to “take on the political establishment” and “keep the government out of women’s personal health care decisions.”
During a mid-morning interview with Radio Iowa, Trone Garriott said: “I looked at what was happening at the national level, I looked at what was happening in our state and I said: ‘No, I’m not satisfied to sit back…I need to do more,’ and so congress is the thing that will make the biggest difference for our country.”
Trone Garriott, who is 46, expects the General Election race in Iowa’s third congressional district will be one of the closest in the country. “If we flip this seat, we flip control at the federal level,” Trone Garriott told Radio Iowa, “and we can have a balance and a check on some of the erratic policies that are being implemented right now.”
In 2022, Republican Zach Nunn won the district by just over 2000 votes and won reelection last year by a 3.9% margin. Trone Garriott said she’s no stranger to tough elections. Due to the once-a-decade reshuffling of district lines and the timing of elections, Trone Garriott has won three races in the past four years for a seat in the Iowa Senate. She’s the first Democrat to announce a run in the third district.
“I’m really excited to get out early because we’re ready to get going, we’re ready to begin building connections,” Trone Garriott said, “…but even if I’m not the only Democrat on the ticket, I am the only Democrat who has flipped two Republican leaning seats from red to blue and then won a district that went to Trump in 2024.”
Trone Garriott has been a hospital chaplain and has served congregations in rural Virginia and suburban Des Moines. Since 2017, she been coordinator of interfaith engagement for the Des Moines Area Religious Council Food Pantry Network.
The National Republican Congressional Committee has issued a statement calling Trone Garriott “another activist attempting to radicalize Iowa.” It said Trone Garriott is pushing an “extreme agenda that would raise costs, allow men in girls’ sports, and weaken public safety.”
(This post was updated at 10:39 a.m.)