Ex-Kevin McCarthy aide to run for Indiana’s 5th Congressional District

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An Indiana native and seasoned congressional staffer announced Tuesday that he is joining a crowded field of Republicans running for Indiana’s 5th Congressional District.

Max Engling, an IUPUI alum and former aide to ex-U.S. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, becomes one at least seven Republicans running to replace Rep. Victoria Spartz, who is not seeking a third term.

Engling earned his bachelor’s degree in political science and psychology from IUPUI in 2010 and briefly worked for an Indianapolis HVAC business before he started as an intern on Capitol Hill, eventually becoming director of member services for the speaker of the house. He left that job in August.

In a three-minute video announcement, Engling, 36, said he left Capitol Hill after becoming disillusioned with the “extreme, open border policies” of “liberal democrats” and the Biden administration.

“I heard from Indiana families that were struggling to make ends meet, ignored by their public officials and a big government agenda that’s out of step with the Heartland,” said Engling, who promised to “restore conservative values, respect the Constitution, protect the unborn, stop overspending and secure the border” if elected.

Engling received his master’s degree from the U.S. Naval War College, where he studied defense and strategic studies.

In 2012, he was named to The Hill’s “50 Most Beautiful list.”

He and his wife, Kelcey, live in Fishers with their four children.

Other contenders for the 5th Congressional District include Rep. Chuck Goodrich, R-Noblesville, who has raised more than $500,000 since he used $1 million of his own money to kickstart his campaign; Raju Chinthala, treasurer of the Howard County Republican County; Noblesville attorney Mark Hurt; Siddharth Mahant, co-owner of Avon-based trucking firm Mahant Transportation; and Matthew Peiffer, president of Muncie not-for-profit A Voice for Kids.

No Democrats have entered the race.

The district includes more than 750,000 residents in the eastern and northern suburbs of Indianapolis, including Carmel, Noblesville and Fishers, and stretches to the cities of Anderson, Marion, Muncie and Kokomo.

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9 thoughts on “Ex-Kevin McCarthy aide to run for Indiana’s 5th Congressional District

  1. If he wants to “restore conservative values, respect the Constitution, and stop overspending” he must not be a Republican since it doesn’t appear they have much interest in any of these. He became disillusioned with Washington but now can’t wait to get back…heres a tip. Things haven’t gotten any better.

    1. Certainly the McCarthy wing of the Republican party has no interest in this. They’re little more than the Dem party in slow motion.

  2. If UAW negotiations end well for the workers, Indiana’s 5th could turn a lot more blue from Kokomo, Muncie, and Anderson. Carmel and Fishers are turning more blue every year, it seems.

    1. Hitler was a radical trade union leader, Mussolini was a communist party bigwig…but propaganda works wonders on the smooth-brained.

  3. well, no, Lauren B. I don’t believe you’re correct regarding Hitler or Mussolini. Mussolini was a Socialist, which being possessed, no doubt, of a highly textured brain, you know to not be the same as a Communist. He left the Italian Socialist party and became a Fascist. Hitler was not a trade unionist in the traditional sense. The NAZI party attempted to be a party of the workers and people and so a quasi trade union, but in fact when Hitler came to power in 1933, some 13 years after creating the NAZI party, he almost immediately abolished all trade unions in Germany except the approved German Labor Front, which was created by the NAZI party. So to say Hitler was a trade unionist is akin to calling Donald Trump a trade unionist because he seeks to create an alliance with union members to be elected. Communist? maybe we should ask Victoria Sparz just how she got to go to all those big universities in her native Ukraine prior to the Orange Revolution, when Ukraine was a Communist puppet of Russia.

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