(Iowa Capital Dispatch) Democratic congressional candidate Sarah Trone Garriott said Tuesday she believed an important step in addressing Iowa’s cancer crisis was making sure Iowans have consistent, easy access to healthcare — something she said could be accomplished through measures like a national public option and reversing Medicaid cuts.
The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) hosted a “cancer coffee chat” with Trone Garriott Tuesday at Friedrich’s Coffee in West Des Moines, where local cancer survivors and advocates with the organization asked the candidate about her approach to addressing cancer in Iowa if elected to federal office.
The organization will hold a similar event this week with U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, the incumbent Republican in Iowa’s 3rd District, who Trone Garriott is challenging in the upcoming election. It’s at noon Friday, July 10 at Beaverdale Books.
At the state level, officials and researchers are working to identify the factors contributing to Iowa having the second-highest rate of new cancer incidences in the country, and one of only three states with a rising rate of new cancers in 2026, according to the 2026 Cancer in Iowa Report. Trone Garriott said as a state senator, she has supported efforts to fund cancer research and supported efforts like significantly increasing the tobacco tax to deter people from using products known to cause lung cancer.
She said she could make a larger impact on addressing Iowa’s cancer rates if elected to federal office. This would mean supporting measures to federally fund cancer research, expand clinical trial offerings in rural areas, as well as support the expansion of healthcare access and coverage overall, she said.
“At the state level, I haven’t been able to see some of my priorities move over the finish line, and so, the possibilities at the federal level are so much bigger,” Trone Garriott said. “We have a lot more power working together in with those federal dollars, and so, making sure that every one of our neighbors has healthcare coverage — so that every U.S. citizen can get the healthcare they need — I think that should be a top priority. … We can work together to provide some kind of public option, to make sure everyone’s covered while expanding the opportunities within the existing programs too.”
Trone Garriott said she was “open to the possibilities” of what a public option would include, saying she supported proposals that would allow people to keep their private insurance while expanding the ability for individuals to participate in programs like Medicare, and to get coverage that is not tied to their employment.
Richard Deming, a cancer doctor and volunteer with ACS CAN, asked Trone Garriott how she would tackle problems — especially in rural communities — related to healthcare access. The Democrat said she believed reversing cuts to Medicaid made through the 2025 “big, beautiful” law and extending subsidies through the Affordable Care Act that lapsed earlier in 2026 were ways to directly help rural Iowa communities.
“Medicaid is a huge piece of the puzzle here in Iowa,” Trone Garriott said. “About 20% of our neighbors depend on Medicaid to get access to healthcare. And because of the cuts that my congressman voted for, we’ve had three clinics close in the district just this year, and I know that’s just the beginning. We also have a couple hospitals now on the endangered list because of those cuts.”
She criticized Nunn for supporting the 2025 law, which will lead to an estimated $137 billion decline nationally in rural Medicaid spending. While some Republicans have argued rural communities will be better supported under the law with funding through the federal Rural Health Transformation Program, through which Iowa was awarded $209 million in 2025, Trone Garriott said this funding will not be enough to offset losses from Medicaid cuts.
“There’s a big difference between $1 billion a year, invested in healthcare across all kinds of providers and a competitive grant program that only provides about $250 million a year to hospitals,” Trone Garriott said. “I’ve talked to hospital board members who say they’re struggling to think of projects and ways that they can apply to spend that money that will help them the most. It doesn’t just pay for healthcare, it has to be very specific, targeted projects, and that’s not helping people get healthcare. That is one time, and it’s only for five years. It’s not adding up. It’s crumbs compared to the investments that were coming into our state and covering our neighbors.”
In addition to restoring funding for federal programs, Trone Garriott signed a “cancer promise” saying she would support funding for cancer research, alongside supporting prevention and early detection services as well as working to make healthcare more affordable. She also told advocates at the event she would work to bring clinical trial services “into the community, so that we have the resources, the expertise where people are at,” and would work to prevent cuts to cancer research made by the federal government.
“The DOGE effort just came in and indiscriminately started cutting programs and eliminating research projects, and setting us back decades in terms of those studies,” Trone Garriott said, referring to the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative. “We need to have policy that will protect research projects and not allow them to be axed in the middle. We need to make sure that we have consistent investment in research and that we’re increasing that research investment, and so, that that’s a direction to go.”
Iowa Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, the Democratic candidate for Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District in 2026, posed with her “cancer promise” pledge signed at a July 7, 2026 event in West Des Moines where she spoke with advocates affiliated with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network about actions she would take in federal office to combat Iowa’s high and rising cancer rates if elected. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
