AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Republicans are known for talking about religious issues on the campaign trail, not so much with Democrats, but that's definitely not the case for two Democratic nominees running in separate U.S. House races in Iowa. NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose reports on Christian clergy on the campaign trail.
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JASON DEROSE, BYLINE: On a humid Sunday afternoon in the western suburbs of Des Moines, Sarah Trone Garriott is canvassing for votes.
SARAH TRONE GARRIOTT: I'm Sarah Trone Garriott. I'm state senator for Dallas County, and I'm running for Congress, so I was just coming by to say hi.
STEVEN HINRICHSEN: Hi. How you doing?
CASEY HINRICHSEN: Hey.
GARRIOTT: I'm a minister. I'm a state senator.
DEROSE: One of the doors Trone Garriott knocks on in her bid to represent Iowa's 3rd Congressional District belongs to Steven (ph) and Casey Hinrichsen (ph). The big issue for them...
S HINRICHSEN: The rise in costs of everything. Just - we just went grocery shopping, and it just - it's amazing how you can get, like, 20 items, and it costs a hundred bucks.
DEROSE: The couple isn't especially religious, but when I ask their thoughts on clergy running for office...
C HINRICHSEN: I think they have an ability to work with people more so than others. They've actually seen people go through things and are willing to help people. And yeah.
S HINRICHSEN: I think their moral compass will be on the higher side.
DEROSE: Talking with voters in and around Des Moines this Sunday afternoon is the second shift for Trone Garriott.
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing) Hear us, O Lord. Have mercy on us.
DEROSE: The ordained pastor began her day in the chancel of Grace Lutheran Church, wearing a white robe and red shoes.
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GARRIOTT: Lift up your heads to see and hear the proclamation of the good news made flesh in Jesus Christ.
DEROSE: Trone Garriott is a supply pastor, filling in while the regular minister here is away. She doesn't lead a congregation full time. She served in the Iowa Senate since 2021. This morning, she's preaching on a passage from the Gospel of Matthew - Jesus' description of God's reign, like a mustard seed, yeast, a hidden treasure.
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GARRIOTT: The kingdom of heaven challenges what we have come to expect or learned to accept.
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DEROSE: One of the people in worship is retired chemist and longtime member Rich Snyder (ph). During coffee hour, he tells me he's not naturally inclined to want clergy in politics.
RICH SNYDER: I'm skeptical. Until I get a chance to listen to their expressions of faith and how they view their calling. And when it becomes a calling rather than a prescription or a bully pulpit, then I'll start to listen.
DEROSE: And Snyder likes what he hears from Trone Garriott, who hears her call to politics in the Gospel of Luke.
GARRIOTT: Jesus tells the parable of the good Samaritan - everyone is your neighbor. Anyone who is overlooked and left behind and forgotten. That's who you were called to help, and that is the calling of government.
DEROSE: Many Democratic people of faith frame their politics this way - use government to improve lives. But Trone Garriott's political opponents have sometimes criticized the way she carries out her ministry. A few years ago, as part of a public storytelling project, she recalled a seminary internship experience when her supervisor asked her to assist at a wedding for two people who said they were satanists. Her opponent, incumbent GOP Congressman Zach Nunn, says the incident shows she's out of touch with everyday Christians. Here he is on WHO NewsRadio 1040 in Iowa.
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ZACH NUNN: And she talks about the situation like it was some kind of a charming story. She even joked about picking Bible verses so that satanists could feel more at home.
DEROSE: But Trone Garriott says her participation in the wedding allowed her to bring God's word to this couple and may have changed their hearts.
GARRIOTT: It's a story about the power of Scripture, and I believe it spoke to that couple in that moment, who seemed like the wrong people in the wrong place, and it was speaking to me.
DEROSE: Trone Garriott is one of at least half a dozen ordained clergy running for federal office as Democrats in the midterms. But Democrats speaking about faith face a challenge. Less than a third of their party says religion is very important to them, according to Pew Research, so connecting on other issues is crucial.
LINDSAY JAMES: Yes, yes. Well, good to see you. We're going to make some rounds. But we'll come back and say hello. So...
DEROSE: About two hours northeast of Des Moines is the small town of Waverly, Iowa. On a steamy Monday evening, another clergy candidate is shaking hands at the Bremer County Fair.
JAMES: Hi. Lindsay James. Running for Congress.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Nice to meet you.
JAMES: Nice to meet you. And you are?
DEROSE: Lindsay James is a Presbyterian chaplain, a four-term state House representative and the Democratic nominee for Iowa's second congressional seat.
LINDLEY SHARP: I've seen your ads quite a bit.
JAMES: Oh, have you?
SHARP: So - yes.
JAMES: Good.
SHARP: Yeah.
DEROSE: Among the potential voters she meets while touring 4-H exhibits and sampling cheese curds is Lindley Sharp (ph). She works in public health and worries about budget cuts.
SHARP: It's going to mean less money for public health down the line after some of their federal funds are gone.
JAMES: Yes.
DEROSE: Standing nearby is Kip Ladage (ph), who works in emergency medical services.
KIP LADAGE: Look at the Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement that we get 'cause we're getting hosed here.
JAMES: Yes.
LADAGE: If we have a $600 call, we're lucky to get a hundred and fourteen bucks. I've got all the charts.
JAMES: Yes.
LADAGE: We're lucky...
DEROSE: While neither ambulances nor public health may seem like religious issues, for Lindsay James, they're deeply moral ones, and they're why she decided to run for the U.S. House.
JAMES: After the Big Beautiful Bill was passed from D.C. and about 27,000 Iowans were at risk of losing their health care in just Iowa's 2nd Congressional District.
DEROSE: James says she knew what that loss would mean for people because of her work as a chaplain.
JAMES: It's about showing up for people. It's about listening without judgment. It's about offering hope. And it's about telling the truth. And there is a level of accountability that is needed when, you know, we see corporate greed run rampant and harm people.
DEROSE: Talk like that doesn't sit well with her opponent, Republican Joe Mitchell. Like many Republicans, he describes opposition to restricting trans rights as anti-Christian. Here he is at the conservative evangelical family leadership summit this summer, criticizing both Lindsay James and Sarah Trone Garriott.
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JOE MITCHELL: I call them PINOs, pastors in name only, 'cause they're not real pastors, right? They don't profess the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
DEROSE: James responds by pointing to the Gospel of Luke, the parable of the good Samaritan, who cares for a man lying hurt by the side of the road, specifically, an interpretation by Martin Luther King Jr.
JAMES: He talked about the road being notorious for people getting harmed and hurt, and that we had a moral obligation not just to pick up the person who's hurting, but to actually fix the road.
DEROSE: That road in rural Iowa today, says James, is underfunded healthcare, and repairing it is what her faith looks like in public life.
Jason DeRose, NPR News, Waverly, Iowa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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