Sarah Trone Garriott’s campaign today launched a new television ad, “Show Up.” The 30-second spot begins running today on broadcast TV and digital across Iowa’s Third District. Watch “Show Up” here.

The ad makes a simple point: Zach Nunn is weak on China.

Nunn sits on the one committee in Congress created for the sole purpose of holding China accountable. He missed nearly half of its hearings. He voted against a bill that would have blocked Chinese-owned companies from buying American farmland, one week after taking money from the PACs of two of those companies. And he cosponsored a bill that a Chinese newspaper said would “greatly increase China’s share of the U.S. pork market,” which is the market Iowa’s hog farmers depend on.

“Being tough on China isn’t a slogan, it’s showing up, and Zach Nunn missed nearly half the hearings of the one committee whose only job is holding China accountable,” said Sarah Trone Garriott. “Iowa farmers are facing sky-high prices and pressure from China, while Nunn skips the meetings, takes money from Chinese-owned companies, and votes to allow China to buy up our farmland.” 

Every claim in the ad is documented below:

1. Nunn sits on the one committee whose sole purpose is holding China accountable.

In February 2025, Nunn was named to the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. He announced it himself, and described the committee’s job in his own words: it is “responsible for assessing the threats to the economy and national security posed by the government of China and proposing plans to ensure a strong American future.” [Congressman Zach Nunn, Press Release, 2/4/25]

2. He missed nearly half of that committee’s hearings.

Committee records show Nunn missed almost half the sessions the Select Committee held from his appointment through July 2026. [US House Committee Repository, Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, accessed 7/20/26]

The hearings he missed included ones focused on how the CCP hurts American seniors, attacks democracies, and about how to counteract China’s economic and national security threats to the US.

Voting records place Nunn in Washington, D.C. on each day he skipped a hearing to hold China accountable. [Daily Mail, 6/11/26 & US House Clerk Voting Records]

At the same time he was missing hearings on Chinese AI and espionage, Nunn was promoting “Stratagem,” the self-published thriller he wrote about a Chinese AI attack, and marketing it on his national security credentials, including his seat on the committee he kept missing. [Daily Mail, 6/11/26]

3. He voted to allow Chinese-owned companies to buy American farmland.

On September 28, 2023, Nunn voted against the fiscal 2024 Agriculture appropriations bill. That bill, as CQ described it, “would direct the USDA to take necessary actions to prohibit the purchase of U.S. agricultural land by non-resident aliens and foreign businesses associated with Russia, North Korea, Iran and China.” The bill failed, 197 to 237. [H.R. 4368, Vote #507, 9/28/23; CQ, 9/28/23]

4. He took thousands from the PACs of the Chinese-owned companies that own American farmland.

Between 2022 and September 21, 2023, one week before that vote, Nunn’s campaign and leadership PAC accepted $8,750 from the political action committees of Syngenta Corporation and Smithfield Foods. [FEC Receipts, accessed 5/10/26]

Both companies are Chinese-owned, and both own American farmland:

• Syngenta was bought in 2017 by China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina) for $43 billion, “the largest Chinese takeover of a foreign company” on record. [South China Morning Post, 9/12/22] ChemChina merged in 2021 with Sinochem, “a company headquartered in Beijing that describes itself as a Chinese ‘state-owned’ enterprise.” [Mother Jones, 1/28/25] Syngenta has disclosed owning farmland in Iowa. [NBC News, 8/25/23]
• Smithfield Foods is owned by China’s WH Group. The company says it owns roughly 85,000 acres of U.S. farmland. [Investigate Midwest, 12/8/25]

Nunn’s campaign and Leadership PAC have accepted $18,750 from Syngenta Corporation and Smithfield Foods PAC’s [FEC Receipts, accessed 5/10/26]

Nunn’s campaign has taken more than $1 million from corporate PACs overall. [FEC Receipts, accessed 7/31/26] Sarah Trone Garriott has not taken a dime of corporate PAC money in this race.

5. He cosponsored a bill China’s own press said would grow its share of the U.S. pork market.

Nunn cosponsored the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression Act, the EATS Act, on June 30, 2023. [Congress.gov, H.R. 4417, cosponsored 6/30/23] He went further than that in describing his own role, announcing in a press release that he and Rep. Ashley Hinson “today introduced” the bill. [Congressman Zach Nunn, Press Release, 7/6/23]

In July 2023, the Chinese outlet China Weekly reported that the EATS Act “will greatly increase China’s share of the U.S. pork market,” adding that “China is still the largest pork producer in the world,” and that the bill “will directly benefit” Shuanghui International Holdings, the parent of Smithfield. [Farm Action Fund, 7/20/23]

The warnings were not partisan. A group of House Republicans, including then-Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good and Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Byron Donalds and Nancy Mace, wrote that the EATS Act “would prioritize CCP-controlled farms over American farms” and “would hurt thousands of American farmers and give more agricultural power to our foreign adversaries.” [Representative Anna Paulina Luna, Press Release, 3/8/24]

Chris Green, executive director of the Animal Law & Policy Program at Harvard Law School, warned the bill could backfire on Iowa’s own pork producers by stripping away state protections that keep livestock safe from disease, exposing them to “bankrupting economic losses.” [KCRG, 7/26/23]

Transcript:

There’s one committee in Congress with the sole purpose of holding China accountable

And for nearly half the hearings, Zach Nunn didn’t even bother to show up

But Nunn did show up to vote to allow Chinese companies to buy American farmland

After he took thousands from those same companies

Nunn even sponsored a bill helping China sell more pork, directly hurting Iowa farmers

Nunn shows up for his donors

Iowa pays the price

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