Winner, Winner: Sarah Trone Garriott on faith, showing up, and good leadership
Sarah Trone Garriott's over-performance in conservative districts over the years is fueled by her presence in the community, relationships with voters, and effective leadership as a state legislator.
In today’s episode of the Winner, Winner podcast, I’m in conversation with Sarah Trone Garriott, who’s running for Congress in Iowa’s 3rd congressional district against Republican Zach Nunn.
Sarah serves in the Iowa State Senate and has flipped not one but two seats in the Iowa Senate. She defeated a popular Republican mayor in 2020, and in 2022 after redistricting, she was drawn into a district with a Democratic colleague. Instead of running in a primary against her colleague, Sarah uprooted her home and moved to a neighboring district to take on the GOP Senate president in an R+5 district. Not only did she win, but she beat him by three points while running 10 points ahead of the top of the ticket. Sarah has a proven track record of over-performance and is the only Democrat in Iowa to flip multiple seats in districts that Trump won.
Notably, Sarah is also a Lutheran minister and works at an interfaith food pantry network.
Iowa’s 3rd congressional district encompasses central and southern Iowa. Iowa-3 has a Cook PVI of R+2, and Trump won the district by 4 points in 2024. The district is on the DCCC’s Red to Blue list for the 2026 cycle.
You can watch the episode here.
As a person of faith and faith leader, I asked Sarah why more Democrats don’t talk about their faith when it is often an important part of their lives and can help voters connect through values.
Faith is important to a lot of people, but I think a lot of well-intentioned people have felt like it’s not polite to talk about religion or religion and politics together, and they don’t have practice. They’re not sure how to do it in a way that’s respectful, and all they’ve seen is the religious right and religious extremism, and the way that that happens, they don’t want anything to do with that. So they say, “well, I’m just not going to be that, so I’m not going to talk about that.” But it’s a really important thing to do because it’s a good way to connect with people.
There are a lot of common values across religions and even for folks who are not religious. We need to bring our whole selves to what we do. And I think it’s important for elected leaders to help share about who they are to the public. For some folks, [talking about their faith] just feels so personal — “I don’t want anyone to know about it.” But, hey, it’s about how we live together and how we’re called to be a person in this world. So I spent a lot of time encouraging my colleagues in not even just talking about your own faith, but getting to know what matters to other people. And so showing up for faith communities, spending time with religious communities in their special moments, getting to know about your neighbors of faith. Even within Christianity, there’s a lot of diversity.
Getting to know your neighbors shows you respect them. It shows they matter to you. And then you know something about them, which helps you serve them better.
During her time in the state legislature, Sarah broke with Democrats to support tax cuts for middle-class Iowans. One of my favorite STG stances is simply that she’s not going to be bossed around, whether that’s by establishment figures, interest groups, or fellow members of the Democratic Party.
At the state level and at the federal level, we need to address corruption. At the state level, I have filed bills for term limits because I think it’s important that people are working hard for their districts and listening to their constituents and they can’t just take a seat for granted. There are a lot of folks in safe seats who just hang out. And we need to have new voices and new perspectives coming up through the political process. I think term limits could help with that. It’s also accountability for folks who can’t just park there and be there forever.
I’ve also filed a bill to prevent stock trading at the state level because no one should be getting rich off of the decisions they’re making in state government. Those are both pieces of legislation I would gladly work on at the federal level because the system is not working for people. There are some real problems, and we need to address them. That also includes campaign finance reform. The way that money has such a loud voice in this process is really disturbing, and we need some real transformation when it comes to that issue, like a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United, and banning corporate PAC money in elections.
There are a lot of things we can do to make the process fairer so that people are truly accountable to their voters and not able to ignore them.
As I mentioned in the intro, Sarah defeated the GOP Senate president and ran 10 points ahead of the top of the ticket after getting drawn out of her district. That doesn’t just happen, and she shared more about how that result came to be.
What I’ve heard from people in my community is they want something different. I’ve knocked thousands of doors — mostly Republican and independent doors — in my state Senate districts. And what I hear repeatedly from folks is they’re sick of politics, they’ve lost trust, and they’ve lost confidence. They don’t feel like it’s working for them.
But I also hear from folks that they don’t vote for the party — they vote for the person. If they don’t meet the person, they default to the party.
So it’s up to me as a candidate, as an elected leader, to get out there and be present to people and help them get to know me. That takes a lot of work. That means knocking thousands of doors in all kinds of weather. That means showing up and hosting open town halls. That means being present on the radio and digital communications and social media. There are a lot of places you can meet people, and I try to take every opportunity I can to show up for people because I’m always going to learn something from them. And in this election, people are looking for something different. They want something better. They can see what we’ve got is not working; it’s more political games, it’s more folks not getting to work on the issues that are making the difference for their lives and just giving a lot of talking, excuses. And that’s what we saw when Trump came to town this week. That’s what we’ve been seeing from our Congressman Zach Nunn.
They don’t want excuses anymore. They want someone who’s really going to get to work. And in every way, in every job I’ve had, in every role I’ve been in, that’s what I do. I get things done. I listen, and I show up, and I work harder than anyone. And that resonates with people because that’s what they deserve.
In my last question to Sarah, I asked how her candidacy contributes to a vision of the Democratic Party that can win in the future and in election cycles to come.
I’m running because I want to make things better for my neighbors. I’m running because I want politics to work for people. I’m running because I want my party to be better. I know we can be. There are a lot of opportunities to improve. And I want to share what I’ve learned from running really hard races, and I want to be part of making a better future for our country and for our state.
It’s about showing up, it’s about listening, and it’s about connecting with people and making new relationships with folks that might not see everything the same way, but there is a tremendous amount of common ground. And that’s what I hear from my neighbors. The greatest issue, the greatest need, honestly, for them is they want someone to heal the division. They want someone to bring people together. They love their neighbors. They love their friends. They have different political perspectives, but they want to be together as part of the community.
We’ve got a lot of division and a lot of animosity, but that’s not what they want, and they know it’s hurting us all. We can be part of making that change. And I want to help my political party be part of making a better future.