Sarah Trone Garriott

Sarah Trone Garriott is a Democratic state senator, ordained Lutheran minister, and mother running to represent Iowa's 3rd Congressional District, one of the most competitive U.S. House seats in the country and currently held by Republican Rep. Zach Nunn.

Born in Minneapolis, Trone Garriott put herself through college working at Walmart, waiting tables, and cleaning hotel rooms before earning a degree in history from the College of St. Scholastica. She then served a year with AmeriCorps VISTA supporting survivors of domestic violence, earned graduate degrees from Harvard Divinity School and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and worked as a hospital chaplain in Philadelphia and Chicago before becoming an ordained Lutheran pastor. She led a congregation in rural Virginia before moving to Iowa in 2013 to pastor Faith Lutheran Church in Clive, and later served as coordinator of interfaith engagement for the Des Moines Area Religious Council's food pantry network, building partnerships to fight hunger across central Iowa.

Trone Garriott entered elected office in 2020, flipping a Republican-held Iowa Senate seat, and in 2022 defeated the sitting Senate president in a district Gov. Kim Reynolds had carried by seven points. She held that seat again in 2024 even as it favored Donald Trump, a track record her campaign points to as evidence she can win on tough terrain. Now serving as Iowa Senate Minority Whip, she has focused on affordable health care, public education, child care, and reproductive rights, and she is running for Congress to bring that same record of pragmatic, faith-grounded leadership to Washington.

Sarah Trone Garriott has fought to:

• Lower costs for Iowa families on essentials like health care, child care, and housing
• Expand access to affordable health care, including in rural communities
• Protect reproductive freedom and keep medical decisions between patients and doctors
• Fully fund public schools and support Iowa's teachers
• Protect Iowa's land, water, and clean energy future
• Safeguard Social Security and Medicare for current and future retirees
• Defend workers' right to organize and the dignity of work
• Support veterans and ensure they receive the services they've earned

Across these priorities, Trone Garriott's approach reflects the same pragmatic, listen-first style that has defined her time in the Iowa Senate: showing up in every part of the district, working across party lines where possible, and pushing to make life more affordable and secure for working Iowa families.