U.S. House candidate Sarah Trone Garriott visits Albia

Iowa State Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, who is currently running as the Democratic nominee for U.S. House District 3 to face off against Republican Rep. Zach Nunn, visited Albia on Saturday, May 16, to speak to constituents, share her vision and hear their concerns.

The meeting was held at the Carnegie-Evans Public Library and Trone Garriott took questions from those who gathered about her thoughts on issues like water quality, health care, the current U.S. House of Representatives and more.

After wrapping up the visit, Trone Garriott said there were a lot of concerns from those gathered about the rising cost of health insurance and the amount of denials for service or payments by insurance companies that people are facing.

She said she also heard from people who had been able to buy insurance through the Obamacare exchanges with subsidies, but when Republicans let the subsidies lapse, the cost of the plans they had previously had were now unaffordable.

She said she had also heard that plans being offered at prices people could afford were basically junk plans with little covered.

Trone Garriott spoke about the need for people to be able to trust their elected officials again.

“You earn trust by showing up, by helping people, by being there for them,” said Trone Garriott. “Learning from the community, that’s how you serve really well, and I’ve seen that as a state legislator too.”

Trone Garriott also talked about her experiences working as a hospital chaplain and a parish pastor, building trust quickly with people and being there for people in the toughest parts of their lives and how she relates that experience to giving people hope that they can change their lives and communities for the better through the political process as well.

“Even in the worst moments, where the worst thing was going to happen and you couldn’t do anything to stop it, you could always make things better,” said Trone Garriott. “And so I really take that approach to everything I do. And I’ve seen it in state government…My primary responsibility is to make sure that the voices of my constituents are represented in that building. The people’s voice is powerful and when I help bring them into the process, it makes it better, it makes it work better…whether it’s bad things not happening, or bad things made better or good things moving forward and crossing the finish line, I know it makes a difference.