'Pagan' outreach, Wiccan prayer defense could haunt Dem in battleground race

Republicans are escalating attacks on Iowa Democratic candidate Sarah Trone Garriott by pointing to her past op-eds — including her defense of a Wiccan-led statehouse prayer in which she argued "Jesus engaged with Pagans" — in a high-stakes race for a GOP-held district.

Democratic congressional candidate Sarah Trone Garriott, a Lutheran minister who is vying for the battleground seat held by Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, penned an op-ed in the Des Moines Register in 2015 criticizing Christian lawmakers who boycotted a Wiccan-led statehouse prayer. This writing and others, including another op-ed in which she shared how the 9/11 terrorist attacks made her "more aware of the rising anti-Muslim bigotry and its harm," have become the target of GOP attacks as the Republicans ramp up efforts to defend their House majority.

"Sarah Trone Garriott is once again wagging her finger at Iowans for not being woke enough and embracing her coastal elite Harvard values," RNC spokesman Zachary Kraft said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "Trone Garriott better hope those spells and potions work if her campaign strategy is to oppose men in women's sports and embrace neopagan witchcraft." 

Garriott's 2015 opinion piece titled, 'Look closely at scripture before acting in faith,' blasted Iowa lawmakers for skipping the prayer led by a self-described "cabot witch," saying they didn't "look closely and honestly" at Christian Holy Scriptures when deciding to boycott.

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A spokesperson for Garriott shared in a statement to Fox News Digital that the message behind her opinion piece was to call on her fellow Christians to love everyone, including Pagans.

"As Sarah said, her faith in God calls her to follow Jesus’ example of loving one’s neighbor and spreading His grace to everyone, including those whose belief systems are fundamentally different from her own Christianity," a spokesperson for Garriott said. "Scripture teaches Jesus’ unconditional grace, and that’s the belief that grounds Sarah’s life and ministry." 

Wicca is a modern pagan tradition in which members worship a Goddess and God and engage in witchcraft and rituals. One Iowa House member who boycotted told the Des Moines Register at the time that he felt uncomfortable "seeking guidance from the occult."

Another lawmaker told the Des Moines Register he attended the invocation but turned his back in protest, saying he asked himself what Jesus would do and felt compelled to act in that way.

"Clearly, Christian elected officials should be asking, 'What would Jesus do?' when it comes to matters of budget and public safety," Garriott wrote. "But at the least, as a Christian, I would appreciate it if they would actually consult the recorded witness of Jesus' life and teaching before claiming to act in his name."

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Garriott wrote that "Christians specifically" should be aware that Jesus interacted with pagans throughout the New Testament, noting that Jesus always acted from "a place of kindness and compassion," and that he "did not turn his back" on the pagans he met.

She listed Mark 7:24-30, Luke 8:26-39, Matthew 15:21-28 and John 4:5-38 as examples of Jesus interacting with pagans. In those passages, Jesus is depicted interacting with non-Jews but not participating in their religious practices.

Garriott next suggested that Jesus Christ was more concerned with the behavior of Christians than with pagans.

"Instead, it was the hypocrisy of those of his own religious community that Jesus protested — and not silently," Garriott wrote.

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Nunn's spokesperson Mark Matava weighed in, arguing the opinion piece is just another example of Garriott's "preachy" radical views.

"Sarah Trone Garriott has been lecturing Iowans for over a decade," Matava said. "Choose a Christian school for your kids and she calls it segregation. Stand up for your daughter in sports and she calls it sexism. Walk out of a witchcraft invocation and she calls it bigotry."

Garriott has previously criticized the display of Christian symbols in political spaces, arguing America is "not a Christian nation," but "it’s a nation for all of us," in remarks before her congregation.

In early April, RNC Research posted on X a clip of Garriott speaking in which she shared the "uncomfortable ways" in which Christianity was showing up in politics. She argued that the conflation of the American flag and cross is an example of how Christianity has become "threatening."

In another clip posted by RNC Research, Garriott talked about how Iowa has "a long way to go" to ensure that Iowans are truly represented.

"It's mostly white, mostly Christian, mostly older men," Garriott said. "We have tremendous opportunities to get different kinds of people who represent our community into those leadership positions."