Republican U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn and Democrat Sarah Trone Garriott clashed over healthcare, the Iran war and how to lower costs in their only debate ahead of the midterm elections next week.
The 3rd District primarily covers south-central Iowa including the Des Moines metro. It is one of the country’s most competitive races and has been targeted by national Democrats in an effort to regain control of the U.S. House.
Election analysts at the Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball currently rank the race as “lean Democrat,” after shifting the race from “toss-up” earlier this month.
The 3rd District candidates were the last race to schedule a debate after sparring for weeks over dates.
Healthcare
The candidates diverged on how to best provide healthcare for people in the district.
Trone Garriott, a state senator and Lutheran minister from West Des Moines, tied Nunn’s support for Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to clinic closures and some Iowans losing healthcare coverage. She called for Medicaid funding to be restored, calling cuts “devastating to our neighbors.”
“We've got to protect the ACA and expand options for folks so that they can have coverage, more choices, not less,” Trone Garriott said.
Nunn, a Republican from Ankeny who’s running for his third term, pointed to $50 billion for rural health included in the law. But Nunn said he has worked across the aisle to help Iowans, pointing to a vote in January when he broke with his party to extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies.
“We didn't pull the rug out from people when they needed it most,” he said.
Nunn also said he’s been focused on sustaining the longevity of healthcare programs and called for ACA reform.
“Right now, there's illegals on it. There are people who are deadbeat dads who are sapping money off it, and it's taking away from people with disabilities who really need to be on it,” he said. “We need to be making an investment in the long-term care of our healthcare system, not driving up insurance premiums by flushing more taxpayer dollars into a broken system with no reform.”
Speaking to reporters after the debate, Nunn said “the ACA is not the best way to move forward,” but claimed Trone Garriott is pushing “a government takeover of healthcare.”
Trone Garriott supports a public healthcare option alongside private options. After the debate, she told reporters a public health option is necessary “to fill in the other gaps.”
“Healthcare is one of those things that holds people back,” she said. “They want to be entrepreneurs. They want to start a business. But they can't do it because they've got to stay at the job with the healthcare.”
Iran war
As the war in Iran crosses the eight month threshold, candidates dug into how they believe the conflict should be resolved. Both candidates agreed Iran should never have a nuclear weapon.
Throughout the debate, Trone Garriott attacked Nunn for his five previous votes against limiting President Donald Trump’s war powers in Iran. Nunn broke with his party in September and flipped his vote.
Moderator Jodi Long asked Nunn why he changed his vote.
“Look, for the entire first part of the year, we were in open peace negotiations. I trusted both the president and the administration to be able to execute on that,” he said. “When those things changed, my standard on this has never wavered, and as a result, we said we have to have a battle plan for what we do for our men and women in uniform in the conflict with Iran.”
Nunn said Congress needs to fulfill its "constitutional obligation” to work with the president to provide security, and ensure there is an off ramp for the war.
Trone Garriott called for the removal of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
“He is not accomplishing the goal, and we need someone who understands what a global conflict means and how to bring this home, so we can achieve our goals and bring stability to the world,” she said.
Speaking to reporters after the debate, Trone Garriott said she also supports diplomatic solutions to end the conflict, including sanctions. Nunn has also sponsored legislation for increasing sanctions on Iran.
Water quality
Both candidates agreed farmers should have more resources to help them reduce pollution and improve water quality.
Nunn supports a locally-driven approach and said the government should work with the state’s public universities to make water quality monitoring more transparent.
“Equally, I think we should be trusting our communities here to stand up,” he said “The overwhelming majority of farmers want to make sure they're doing it the right way. They're not the enemy here."
Nunn pointed to federal funding he secured for drought and flood water monitoring stations. Data gathered from the stations can help show how contaminants spread. Nunn also credited an EPA change narrowing what waters can be federally regulated as helping remove red tape for the state.
Trone Garriott said she would support lowering the federally allowed nitrate limit for drinking water to safeguard people’s health. Nunn declined to say whether he’d support changing the federal limit.
Cost of living
Candidates offered competing views on how they would drive down prices, as well as how they believe the One Big Beautiful Bill Act has impacted Iowans.
Trone Garriott pinned high prices on Nunn’s votes allowing Trump’s tariffs and the ongoing war in Iran. Trone Garriott said she would end the “chaotic tariffs" and end the war, which she said was critical for lowering diesel prices.
Nunn credited his work on rural housing reform as helping drive down future housing costs. The legislation was included into the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act that became law in July. He also said tax deductions and benefits in the Big Beautiful Bill are helping grow the economy.
“That's one of the ways to keep our economy going,” he said. “And generally speaking, that is the best way to help us overcome our debt: is to make sure our economy is growing faster than the money we're taking on.”
Trone Garriott is supportive of no tax on tips and overtime and the senior tax deduction in the law. But she said Trump’s tariffs have negated much of the benefits for families. She criticized the law for its benefits for wealthy Americans and said she believes families making under $180,000 a year should stand to benefit the most from tax cuts.
“They should be feeling the most benefit, and the folks above should not be the ones benefiting the most,” Trone Garriott said.
Nunn pointed to growing the biofuels industry as a solution for driving down diesel costs. He touted the Trump administration’s recently announced $8 billion Harvest Fuel Relief Program for farmers, as well as his work pushing for year-round sales of E15. Year-round E15 passed the U.S. House but has stalled in the Senate.
Election Day is Nov. 3 and early voting is already underway.
