Iowa Democrats seek to flip US Senate seat
FOX Business correspondent Grady Trimble reports on state Rep. Josh Turek and state Sen. Zach Wahls competing for the chance to challenge the GOP U.S. Senate candidate in a key race on ‘Special Report.’
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FIRST ON FOX: Democrat candidate Sarah Trone Garriott, a minister and state legislator running for one of the most competitive House seats in the nation, contributed to a “resistance preaching” guide that encouraged faith leaders to combat President Donald Trump and his supporters from the pulpit.
Trone Garriott authored a chapter in a 2018 collection titled, “Preaching as Resistance: Voices of Hope, Justice, and Solidarity,” in the aftermath of Trump’s 2016 presidential election victory — an event the book described as bringing the country “so closely to fascism.”
Responding to Trump’s presidency, “Many pastors find themselves drawn toward acts of resistance,” Phil Snider, a self-described “White male cishet pastor,” writes in the book’s introduction.
He argued that “pastors of the resistance” were working against a Trump-led coalition rooted in “White supremacy,” “exploitation,” “greed,” and “heteropatriarchy.”
State Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, a Democrat from Iowa and U.S. congressional candidate, speaks with attendees during a primary election night event at The Loft DSM in Des Moines, Iowa, on June 2, 2026. (Scott Morgan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Trone Garriott, who was ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America in 2008, was among that cohort as an author of the collection.
Her contribution titled, “The Gospel of Resistance,” was described as the first sermon she delivered after the 2016 election and has not been previously reported.
Trone Garriott’s involvement comes as she faces mounting scrutiny from Republicans over her previous remarks on religion and cultural issues. The GOP views the Iowa House battleground held by Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, which incorporates the state capital of Des Moines, as critical to preserving its slim majority.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the contest as a “toss-up.” Trump carried the swing district by over four points in 2024, but a recent Fox News Poll showed his favorability is now underwater in the Hawkeye State.
Trone Garriott publicly discussed helping marry a Satanist couple as a minister-in-training during a love-themed storytelling event in 2023, Fox News Digital previously reported. She also defended a Wiccan-led prayer in the state legislature and tied public displays of Christianity to political violence in a 2023 sermon.
During that talk, she criticized private schools and parental rights in education while highlighting her efforts to seek out prayers in the state legislature that were not from the “White American Christian variety.”
The Republican National Committee (RNC) sharply criticized Trone Garriott’s participation in the “resistance” preaching collection.
“The Wicked Witch of Woke strikes again and admits what we all knew — she views the pulpit as a political weapon to advance her radical agenda,” RNC spokesman Zach Kraft said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “There isn’t a far-left cause Sarah Trone Garriott hasn’t claimed to have found in the Bible and attempted to force on Iowans.”
Trone Garriott did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment about why she chose to contribute to the collection or whether she agreed with the book’s introduction, which described Trump and his tens of millions of voters as rooted in racism.
The book described Trump and his tens of millions of voters as rooted in racism. (David Cliff/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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The sermon collection, described as “provocative” by its publisher, includes 30 sermons under titles that include “Transgressing the Gender Binary,” “Encountering Pharaoh — and Climate Change,” and “Wake Up and Stay Woke!”
Beyond criticism of Trump, pastors also condemned immigration enforcement, deportation policies, transphobia, and what one author calls “the worship of military-grade weaponry among the populace.”
In “When to Break the Law,” a minister urges sanctuary cities to defy the federal government and harbor illegal aliens to avoid deportation. In “Take a Knee,” the author rails against the “militarized border.” In “Overcome Evil with Good,” police departments are associated with White supremacy. In “Beloved Resistance,” the president is described as an “unrepentant sexual predator.”
Trone Garriott’s own sermon closes the collection. While less overtly political than some of the others, it was identified as the first sermon she delivered after Trump’s election.
In the sermon, Trone Garriott appears to encourage listeners who were upset by recent events, without explicitly mentioning Trump’s election win. She discusses periods when Christians felt detachment throughout history and turned to Matthew 24:36–44, a passage about Christ’s return in which he tells believers to remain ready.
Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 15, 2025. (Eric Lee/Bloomberg)
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“For those who are honestly praying for the kingdoms of this world to be destroyed and Christ’s kingdom to come…for those who are yearning to go with Christ wherever that may lead…for those hoping for new life…this is the good news,” she wrote.
