What inspires a minister to run for office? Desire for power? Need for legitimacy? Ability to preach widely?
For Sarah Trone Garriott, running for office is an extension of her community service. As a former hospital chaplain witnessing rising costs, restricted healthcare coverage, and depleting access to food, Garriott decided enough was enough. Now, she joins Jen for a sit-down discussion about the status of her congressional campaign for Iowa’s 3rd district. The two dive into the negative impact of tariffs, funding cuts to SNAP, and the GOP trying to eliminate ACA subsidies. Garriott also addresses the rapid spread of religious nationalism in America, fighting against the weaponization of faith in politics.
Sarah Trone Garriott is an ordained Lutheran minister running for Iowa’s 3rd district. Garriott is currently serving in Iowa’s state senate. She started her career as an Americorps volunteer, where she supported domestic violence victims, before becoming a coordinator for the Des Moines Area Religious Council Food Pantry Network.
Jen Rubin
Hi, this is Jen Rubin, Editor-in-Chief of the Contrarian. We are delighted to welcome Sarah Trone Garrett. She is a Democrat running for the 3rd District in Iowa. If she wins her primary, she will go up against an incumbent who last time won by low single digits. So this is one of the seats that is truly in play in 2026. Welcome, Sarah, nice to see you.
Sarah Trone Garriott
Thank you so much, Jen.
Jen Rubin
This is a competitive race. What have you encountered out on the campaign trail talking to voters? Are they pleased with the representation they’re getting?
Sarah Trone Garriott
There’s a lot of folks here in Iowa’s 3rd District who are incredibly disappointed with what we have right now. Zach Nunn, our congressperson, is not showing up in DC for the people of Iowa. He hasn’t been speaking out for us, and he hasn’t been showing up here in the district either, so… This fellow has not held a single open town hall since he started. Iowans tend to expect that their legislators, their elected representatives will show up and will listen. He’s not doing that, and that’s really reflected in the votes he’s been taking.
Jen Rubin
It is a district that has big cities, small cities, and a lot of rural areas. The Medicaid cuts that would go into effect are, said to devastate rural healthcare and rural hospitals in particular. What are you hearing from healthcare professionals? What are they concerned about? And what will healthcare look like in your district if these cuts go into effect?
Sarah Trone Garriott
So, Zach Nunn voted to cut Medicaid in a pretty substantial way, even though healthcare providers, rural hospitals, clinics, we’re all saying, this is going to really hurt healthcare access in Iowa, and the herd is already coming. So the cuts haven’t taken effect yet, but hospital systems are working now to make their plans, to cut their budgets, and so there’s a small town of Ottumwa in my district that has already announced a clinic closure. We’ve got multiple layoffs happening at some of our metro hospitals. And so, it’s already starting. We’re already seeing less access, we’re seeing jobs lost, we’re seeing a real crisis, because Medicaid’s an important part of healthcare here in Iowa. Quite a few of our neighbors depend on Medicaid, and when our neighbors don’t have coverage, when there’s nobody there who can help them pay for the services they’re seeking out, that means those costs get shifted to everyone else, or hospitals have to close.
Jen Rubin
The administration and the Republicans also chose not to extend the subsidies for those people who buy their insurance on the exchanges. How has that impacted people in the 3rd District?
Sarah Trone Garriott
So there are a lot of people who… they really depended on the ACA subsidies to get access to health insurance coverage. So, we have a lot of farmers that don’t have someone working off the farm to get healthcare. They relied upon those. We’ve got a lot of retired folks who are between retirement and qualifying for Medicare, and they were depending on them as well, and it’s made that healthcare coverage absolutely unaffordable for about 15,000 Iowans. Who just did not sign up this year because they couldn’t afford it. There’s even more who are struggling with that much higher cost, and so that’s having a pretty negative impact already.
Jen Rubin
I can imagine. Today, as we speak, on Friday, the Supreme Court has struck down the tariff regime, from the Trump regime. It’s not clear whether he’s going to reconstitute those in some fashion. How have the tariffs impacted Iowa, and the 3rd District in particular?
Sarah Trone Garriott
The tariffs have been devastating. So these are attacks on Americans. We’re paying the cost of them, and so the tariffs have devastated our farm economy. We’re seeing farmers losing their markets, we’re hearing of foreclosures, we’re seeing folks who just don’t know what the future’s gonna bring because Ag as we know it is being torn apart, and that’s having an impact across the economy, but the tariff is also just raising costs on everything we buy. So the average Iowa family is paying more than $1,300 in addition each year, just because of this tax. It was really encouraging to see the Supreme Court recognize that the president has way overstepped his authority, Congress has not stood up to this president, and my opponent, Zach Nunn, voted to keep giving away his power to the President and keep supporting these tariffs. And so, it’s really important that Those lines are clearly drawn, and that this president listens to this message, but it doesn’t sound like he’s learned his lesson.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely. You’re not like, Susan Collins, who thinks he has always learned his lesson. You are currently a state center, but you’re also a pastor. Talk about how your work as a pastor, and your religious faith, informs your politics.
Sarah Trone Garriott
So, I was a hospital chaplain, I’ve served in parishes in rural Virginia and here in suburban Iowa. For the last 9 years, I worked for a food pantry network with all the diverse religious communities that supported that effort. There’s a lot of transferable skills in being a minister. It’s about serving your community, and so being an elected leader, again, is just another way for me to serve my community. And I have a lot of practice in connecting with people, which is incredibly important in… Being an elected leader, showing up, listening, getting out there to talk to people, to know what those problems are, and bringing people together to work on big challenges that are facing us. My faith, it inspires me, it motivates me, and it also helps me connect with my neighbors. You know, there’s a lot of folks for whom their religious identity, their beliefs are incredibly important to them across the religious spectrum. There’s also a lot of folks who are not religious that have similar values that we can connect on.
Jen Rubin
The white Christian nationalist movement, is really a political movement, and they seem to believe that if you’re not a Republican, you can’t be a Christian, or if you’re not a supporter of Donald Trump, then you are not a person of faith. What’s your response to that kind of argument?
Sarah Trone Garriott
Yeah, so religious nationalism is a problem throughout history and all around the globe. It’s another way that people are trying to seek power by using Religion as a way to Try to grab on to things, and… It’s… it’s harmful. It’s really harmful to our communities, it’s harmful to our government, it’s harmful to religion itself. I’m a Lutheran, and in our church history. the Lutheran Church began because Martin Luther had some real concerns about the corruption that he was seeing in religious leadership, and that intertwinement with the power of the state. And so, we have some real concerns. There needs to be good boundaries. There needs to be a recognition that we live in a diverse society. And that… The state should not be used to force people to worship. or believe in a certain way, and that religious communities need to be very wary of how the power of the state might try to use them to get what they want. And so, for me, as a person who serves in government, and is a religious person, I’m just really aware that we need good boundaries. And it’s important that people of faith bring their whole selves To the public conversation. With respect for the great diversity that we have in our country, and with a recognition that not everybody practices or believes or worships in the same way.
Jen Rubin
There is a long tradition of, progressive Democrats in Iowa. Is there someone from Iowa, or… some other state union that you particularly admire as a politician who you would seek to emulate, if you, want a seat in Congress, either a senator, or a congressperson or a governor, anyone of that ilk?
Sarah Trone Garriott
So, Governor Robert Ray, for Iowans, he… It was a tremendous positive force, was… a leader in a global sense, because he heard about the challenges of the Taidam refugees, and he said. Iowa can welcome all of them. So he really opened the doors to a legacy of welcoming people to start a new life in Iowa, and so we see a tremendous history of refugee resettlement here, of people choosing to make Iowa their home. It’s made our state so much stronger. It’s brought such incredible richness to this state, and so there are all these communities of people who live here in Iowa that came because of what Robert Ray started. His wife just passed away a couple days ago, and she also was quite a leader in her own right to make sure that the First Ladies of Iowa and the women who were also part of leading our state are remembered. And, so the two of them together, really important role models for me.
Jen Rubin
Last question for you. You have worked in food pantries, and we saw that this administration, took away SNAP benefits for a period of time during the shutdown, and that they have in store more permanent cuts for SNAP. What does that mean to people? And talk to us a little bit about the type of people who are using SNAP benefits. The right tends to paint these people as loafers, or, people who don’t want to work. Who are they really?
Sarah Trone Garriott
So, the vast majority of people who are receiving SNAP benefits in our country, they work, but the economy is not working for them, so they’re struggling to provide the basics for their families. A lot of folks actually are benefiting our children, and we’ve got a lot of older Iowans who are struggling with rising costs, and they’ve worked their whole lives, they’ve saved, and they can’t keep up. And so, SNAP benefits are a really important tool to help people through tough times, but also help some of those folks that need that ongoing support, like children, like older Iowans, like people with disabilities. And these cuts are going to be really devastating for our state. SNAP brings about $45 million a month into our state that’s spent at local grocery stores, and so it’s going to be a hit to our economy, it’s going to hurt a lot of people. And I worked for a food pantry network. Whenever we saw any changes to the SNAP program, there was an immediate impact. We saw it that very month it would take effect, so… If there’s less SNAP available, or folks have a hard time receiving it, we saw more people coming to the Food Pantry Network. And the charity system is working so hard to try to keep up with the need as it is right now. We’re seeing record numbers of people coming to the Food Pantry Network, because the costs of everything keep going up, wages are not keeping pace, folks are struggling, and we can’t take away the little bit of help they have.
Jen Rubin
Fascinating experiences that you have had. I would think that the Congress would probably benefit by more people who have spent some time in food pantries and other places that have contact with people with less means. If people want to find out more about you, more about your campaign, what should they do?
Sarah Trone Garriott
So, it’s very easy to follow what I’m doing on my website or social media. You can find me at sarahforiowa.com, S-A-R-A-H-F-O-R-I-O-W-A, and you can find me at Sarah for Iowa on all of the social media platforms as well.
Jen Rubin
Well, thank you so much. Best of luck, folks. This is one of the seats that’s gonna help determine who controls the House of Representatives, so pay attention. Thanks so much, Cheryl. It was a pleasure meeting you.
Sarah Trone Garriott
Thank you so much, Jen.
