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U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz, who announced last year she wouldn’t seek re-election, has changed her mind.
Spartz, who had been waffling in recent weeks on her decision to leave Congress, on Monday morning announced her intent to file for re-election, a move that will make for a complicated GOP primary in which at least nine other Republicans have announced plans to run for her seat.
“Deciding where your duty lies—family, work, or country, is never an easy task,” Spartz said in a written statement. “Earlier last year, I decided to take some time off from running for public office to recharge and spend more time in Indiana with my family. However, looking where we are today, and urged by many of my constituents, I do not believe I would be able to deliver this Congress, with the current failed leadership in Washington, D.C., on the important issues for our nation that I have worked very hard on.
“As someone who grew up under tyranny, I understand the significance of these challenging times for our Republic, and if my fellow Hoosiers and God decide, I will be honored to continue fighting for them,” she continued. “We must carry on the sacrifice of countless Americans for our liberties and keep the American dream alive for our children.”
The Ukrainian-born politician was first elected to Congress in 2020, representing Indiana’s 5th District, which includes the northern Indianapolis suburbs in Hamilton County as well as the cities of Muncie, Kokomo, Anderson and Marion.
After she announced last year that she wouldn’t seek re-election, at least nine Republicans lined up to seek her seat. They are state Rep. Chuck Goodrich, Jonathan Brown, Raju Chinthala, Max Engling, Mark Hurt, Scott King, Patrick Malayter, LD Powell and Larry Savage Jr.
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No thanks
Totally over her head in elected office.
Please no
Someone got a large check
I’m truly sad for the negative comments above. I am very glad that she’s changed her mind and is going to run again. While she’s not in my district, I have admired her passion and tenacity for the job. Best of luck to you Ms. Spartz!
The hypocrisy of the members of the new GOP always amazes me. “As someone who grew up under tyranny, I understand the significance of these challenging times for our Republic…” says the woman who thinks the January 6th attacks on the Capitol were simply Americans exercising their right to free speech and who continues to support the man who wants to be America’s Putin.
+1
What Dave said
Amen Dave
The grifters going grift.
As they say, “…a woman’s prerogative”. That said, I think she’s done a pretty good job.
What has she accomplished?
Good job of what, exactly? Honest question.
Hope her family is on board with this change of mind. Not clear from the statement. Maybe she will have new found courage to truly stand against tyranny, here and abroad, by denouncing authoritarianism through actions not just words, standing up for the rule of law, supporting NATO and Ukraine to our full ability, and pushing back on Putin’s violation of international law and crusade against self-determination.
All of that would require renouncing her party.
Very disappointing
Does it really matter… if she didn’t run whoever the replacement would have been would be just as ineffective as her, they are all the same.
Not true of Patrick Malayter.
LOL. The Saint Andre voters are triggered. Peak “business journal”
Met her once. She’s aggressively unimpressive. Completely lacking in curiosity and substance. Furthermore, I’m not sure she truly believes anything that comes out her mouth. Wish there was a better option. I’m surprised a centrist democrat can’t compete in that district.
Go home!!!! This has gotten resickulous!!! Take your mutts with you!!! Starting with Holcomb on down!!
What does the following statement she made even mean?
“However, looking where we are today, and urged by many of my constituents, I do not believe I would be able to deliver this Congress, with the current failed leadership in Washington, D.C., on the important issues for our nation that I have worked very hard on.”
When I break this down, it seems to say some odd things.
She says the current leadership in Washington is failed. She is a part of that leadership, so isn’t she a part of that failure?
Breaking out the “aside” comments to figure out the main sentence, I comes down to “looking where we are today, I do not believe I would be able to deliver this Congress on the important issues for our nation that I have worked very hard on.”
All I did was remove the aside statements that were in commas. Is she saying she doesn’t think she can deliver? That’s not a really go statement to make to promote re-election.
Clearly, I’m reading her statement wrong. What is she actually trying to say?
To me it sounds like she tried to find a post-politics job and failed.
Agree, Brad J. I read and re-read that sentence several times. Makes no sense. Of course, little she has ever said makes much sense.
Someone who flip-flops like this doesn’t actually want to serve. Step down, Spartz.
I just wish she would stand up for her native country and NATO, and denounce more regularly and forcefully what the Russians are doing to her country…
unless, of course, she’s a Russian Ukranian who didn’t support the Orange Revolution and hoped her country would stay a vassal of Russia.
Imagine a Polish, Czech, Lithuanian, Latvian, Finn, or Slovakian member of the US Congress if their country was attacked. We’d hear speeches every day, and they would at this moment be castigating their Congressional compatriots to rally around their country and provide needed funds and material support.
Imagine if Russia attacked Ireland, or Britian launched new forces into Ireland…Irish American members of Congress would be outraged, and there would be no end of funding for the resistance.
But curiously, not Ms. Spartz…
Amen.
Statement from one year ago, “However, being a working mom is tough and I need to spend more time with my two high school girls back home, so I will not run for any office in 2024.”
Definitive statement, so what changed? Life got easier? Something removed the need to spend more time with her daughters? Over the last year family moved down on the priority list?
I’ll add another comment –
I’m absolutely *not* surprised by her saying she changed her mind. We continue to get large, full-color mailers on a regular basis from her made it seem like she never stopped campaigning. When the last one came in the mail, my wife asked why Spartz was sending them if she truly weren’t running again.
In fact, I’ll give her a “well played” for getting press for not running, and now getting more pressed for changing her mind. Well played for free promotion.
No doubt she figured out there is more she can do in DC to get her family business more income. She is a full blown Trump accolite with as much respect for our democratic institutions as the man she worships does. NOT a FAN
An actual lifetime resident and veteran who ‘speaks our language’….Goodrich. Thanks for your service Victoria, now back to your family, farm and dogs.
What language is that, Trumpian?
She is in so far over her head.
Ms Spartz is one tough lady! Diversity and inclusion? Strength of character? Family values? Self-confidence? Loyalty? I believe her decision to return to the Mad House we call our government is brave and admirable. The face of tyranny that she lived and escaped is too close to resume life as usual. ‘Up North’ that’s called a Mama Bear.
Except I don’t think that’s her actual story. She met her husband while riding a train touring around Western Europe. Not much of an “escape.” She took a train and flew out of her homeland to the US. I recall her father died of cancer, which could not be readily treated at that time in her post-Soviet country. But I suspect her family, or maybe her mother’s subsequent marriage, left her in a different position. She obtained two university degrees in Ukraine, was able to travel, and I seem to recall mention of studying in Moscow prior to meeting Mr. Spartz and decamping to the US. There doesn’t seem to be much on her personal, pre-Spartz, history on the web any longer. The tyranny she would have experienced was as Ukraine worked to become not just independent (1991 when she was aobut 13), but free of the Soviet influence. Ukraine at the time was an expanding economy. Someone with her degrees would have had a relatively easy life.
I’m quite confused that she doesn’t seem to support her native country and she has flip-flopped on whether she is running or not. This is not a job to be taken lightly…it is a commitment. I didn’t really have a lot of respect for her opinions before, but even less now.