Republican claim that Sarah Trone Garriott officiated a Satanic wedding is a lie

Iowa Rep. Zach Nunn and other Republicans are spreading a false claim alleging that Democrat Sarah Trone Garriott officiated a Satanic wedding.

Trone Garriott, a Lutheran minister and state senator, launched a campaign challenging Nunn last year. Nunn is widely regarded as one of the most vulnerable House Republicans facing reelection this fall.

In 2023, Trone Garriott participated in the Des Moines Storytellers Project, a live event featuring first-person narratives on a specific topic or theme. The theme for Trone Garriott’s event was “love.” She recounted how, in 2006, a pair of avowed Satanists came to the West Virginia church where she was a minister-in-training seeking a marriage ceremony.

Trone Garriott expressed unease about participating in the nuptials, but her head pastor insisted, directing her to choose a Bible verse to read. She said the situation taught her the importance of showing goodwill to others, even those she disagreed with.

“It’s hard work to love one another and we often need to be reminded how,” Trone Garriott concluded.

Trone Garriott did not officiate the ceremony and was not even qualified at that time to do so. Nor was the ceremony Satanic in nature. It was a Christian service held in a Lutheran church, with readings from the New Testament.

Despite these facts, Nunn and his allies have attempted to portray the event as something more nefarious.

“[Trone Garriott] feels that Iowa is too white, too Christian, too male to be successful,” Nunn said at a June 23 Clarke County Republican Liberty barbeque. “She says she’s a Lutheran pastor, but then she goes out and officiates demonic weddings.”

In April, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the main group responsible for electing Republicans to Congress, made a social media post stating that “Trone Garriott officiated a SATANIST WEDDING” and that “Democrats are NUTS.”

Similar language was used in multiple statements from Republican Party spokespeople.

A similar line of attack alleges that Trone Garriott referred to Iowa’s private Christian schools as “white enclaves” and “segregation academies” during a 2023 sermon. This is also false. She was accurately explaining that some Christian schools were formed in the 1970s in response to racial integration policies, not claiming that modern Christian schools are racist or discriminatory.

The bad-faith nature of these attacks may suggest that Republicans are feeling desperate. A Conservatives for America poll from March showed Nunn leading Trone Garriott by just one percentage point. Trone Garriott also raised $2.2 million in donations last quarter, while Nunn brought in $968,000.

The Cook Political Report, which evaluates the competitiveness of political races, currently ranks the election as a toss-up.