'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...
By Fox News · Fox News
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. CBS NEWS' MARGARET BRENNAN ACCUSED OF MOCKING PEOPLE OF FAITH AFTER PETE HEGSETH'S PRAYER REMARKS 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 sai…