Trone Garriott, Nunn respond to attack ads on Epstein, transgender issues at debate

Meeting for the sole debate in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn and state Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott responded Tuesday to attacks from their opponent on issues like the Epstein files and transgender athletes and students.

The debate, hosted by KCCI in Des Moines, was aired just a week before Election Day, and follows weeks of the campaigns criticizing one another for being unable to come to a scheduling agreement. The contest is one of the most competitive U.S. House races in the country, according to political forecasters,

While Tuesday was the first time Iowans saw Trone Garriott and Nunn on stage together, many viewers had likely seen campaign ads about the candidates — more than $10.6 million in spending from outside groups was poured into the race, according to Federal Election Commission reports.

Moderators gave the candidates the chance to address some of the claims made in attack ads, including ads criticizing Nunn for his votes related to publicizing files related to Florida financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Nunn voted to pass the “Epstein Files Transparency Act” in 2025, but Democrats have criticized Nunn, as well as other members of Iowa’s federal delegation, for not signing off on the initial discharge petition to force the House to vote on the bill, or voting for an amendment on another measure to compel the release of the Epstein files.

Nunn says votes against releasing files was to protect victim identities

Nunn said he voted against the earlier efforts to release Department of Justice information on Epstein and collaborators, because the proposals would have released the names of Epstein’s victims, which he said would “revictimize the victims.” Some Epstein survivors had their identities revealed in unredacted documents released by the DOJ in early 2026.

“I want to make sure Jeffrey Epstein and all of his accomplices are held fully accountable. He’s a disgusting human being and we’ve been able to lead that legislation here in Iowa,” Nunn said. But “simply opening up and making the files transparent for the victims — their names, their addresses, their background — that’s not fair to the victims.”

He said his vote was to “hold the people who actually did the crime accountable,” and referenced his work in Congress to advocate for providing more federal funding for programs and services for victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault. He said he believed Iowa Republicans were also taking on this issue at the state level.

“It’s not just Jeffrey Epstein,” Nunn said. “This kind of stuff happens right here in Iowa, let’s get after it.”

But Trone Garriott said Nunn’s vote to release the Epstein files only came “when the president had given him permission that he finally joined in and voted to release them.”

“We’ve only gotten half of the files out there, so much is still unknown, and no one has been held accountable,” Trone Garriott said. “We need to make sure that we’ve got someone standing up for us in Washington to make sure that kids are safe.”

Trone Garriott says she voted to give parents a ‘voice’ on transgender issues

Trone Garriott was asked to respond to attack ads criticizing her votes on legislation related to transgender Iowans, including her vote against a 2022 law banning transgender women from participating in women’s sports, and against a 2023 law banning transgender students from using school restrooms that do not align with their sex assigned at birth.

The Democrat said as a mother with two children in Iowa public schools, she cared “deeply about their safety, about health, about fairness” — and said the laws she voted on in regards to transgender students and school athletes were in an effort to allow parents to “have a voice in the decisions that are impacting their children.”

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“I believe that we make much better decisions when parents are involved, because parents are the ones who are there, who can see the circumstances, they can understand what’s at stake — and they make the best decisions for our community, that actually help us address the issue,” Trone Garriott said. “Every single one of the bills that was put before me in the Iowa state Senate took away a parent’s voice. I have to stand up for parents’ voices in this process to make sure that things are safe and fair for our kids.”

Nunn claimed Trone Garriott was in the “extreme element of her party” on issues related to transgender issues. The Republican referenced comments from Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Josh Turek, who he said “highlighted the fact that this is wrong and should be stopped.”

He also said Trone Garriott “authored the bill that would teach transgender ideology to kindergartners.” The legislation Nunn referenced has been referred to by Townhall, a conservative news organization, as a bill to “teach sex education in kindergarten classrooms.” The measure relates to Iowa’s Area Education Agencies and does not mention sex education.

Trone Garriott said some of the criticism comes from her support of “Erin’s Law,” a proposal with bipartisan support that would require the state Department of Education to develop guidelines on how schools can teach students in kindergarten through sixth grade about child sexual abuse, with the goal of awareness and prevention.

“Because I was a sexual assault crisis counselor, I also worked to help bring education into classrooms,” Trone Garriott said. “It’s incredibly important that kids have age-appropriate education so that they can ask for help when something is wrong, when they’re being abused. Some of the bills that I’ve been attacked on are bills … to make sure kids have the language to ask for help when they’re being abused.”