Spartz, Goodrich, 7 others battle in crowded 5th District primary

Rep. Victoria Spartz’s late decision to run for reelection in Indiana’s 5th Congressional District—an about-face from months earlier—shook up a crowded primary that has become a rarity in American politics, with nine Republicans facing off.

Spartz said in February 2023 that she wanted to spend more time at home in Noblesville with her two high-school-age daughters. But she changed course almost exactly one year later because she said she did not think any of the candidates looking to succeed her were the right person for the job.

“I felt like I cannot abandon the country because I understand how tough it is,” Spartz told IBJ. “I understand how important it is, but I also understand how to get things done.”

Spartz, a two-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and her eight challengers will face off in the May 7 Republican primary. The others are Raju Chinthala, Max Engling, state Rep. Chuck Goodrich, Mark Hurt, Patrick Malayter, Matthew Peiffer, L.D. Powell and Larry Savage.

In the general election on Nov. 5, the winner of the Republican primary will face either Ryan Pfenninger or Deborah Pickett, who are competing in the Democratic primary. Early voting for the primary election began April 9.

Indiana’s 5th Congressional District includes Anderson, Carmel, Fishers, Kokomo, Marion, Muncie, Noblesville and Westfield.

Laura Merrifield Wilson, a political science professor at the University of Indianapolis, said it is “incredibly rare” for an incumbent to drop out of a race and then re-enter. And she said doing so complicates the incumbent’s campaigning.

When an officeholder decides to seek reelection early on, his or her presence typically deters quality challengers because campaign contributors want to support the incumbent.

But Spartz has lost many of the advantages an incumbent would usually enjoy, Wilson added.

In order to win, Wilson said, Spartz will need to emphasize her track record in Congress, convince voters she is the best of the nine Republican candidates and explain what she has to offer in a third term.

“This was a self-inflicted problem because you never see this level of challenge against an incumbent, especially in our congressional districts in Indiana,” Wilson said. “They’re drawn in such a way that they are a shoo-in in the general election.”

Spartz said she has had to rebuild her campaign operations quickly over the past two months. She said she “never really wanted to be in Congress,” but she considers it a “great honor and a huge responsibility.”

“I understand how hard it is. I’ve never had support of the establishment of my party,” Spartz said. “I always was a grassroots-driven person, and people on the ground supported me. Big money never supported me because I’m challenging them.”

Goodrich has slammed Spartz’s decision as misleading to voters and potential candidates. Almost immediately after Spartz re-entered the race, Goodrich received endorsements from Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness, Marion Mayor Ronald Morrell Jr. and Noblesville Mayor Chris Jensen.

Goodrich is CEO of Noblesville-based Gaylor Electric and represents Indiana House District 29, which includes Noblesville.

“I’ve never seen in my life a person retire and say they’re not running and have eight people change their life and get in the race and then with a few days left to go, jump back in the race,” Goodrich said.

Engling, who worked as members services director for former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, said he had a feeling for about a month that Spartz would run for another term, but he did not consider leaving the race.

“The reason I’m running didn’t change, and so I’m not someone who’s going to say, ‘Well, you know, something outside of my control happened, and so I’m just going to throw in the towel,’” Engling said. “No, we’re dedicated. We’re running through the tape.”

Ads and money

Chad Kinsella, director of the Bowen Center for Public Affairs at Ball State University, said he is curious to see what the newest campaign finance reports will say when the Federal Election Commission makes them available on April 15.

Spartz “has to really start up a political machine that kind of went dormant when she said that she wasn’t running anymore,” Kinsella said. “It’s going to be really tough. She does have an advantage in that she’s a known entity. People know the name because she’s the incumbent and she’s won before in the district.”

Kinsella noted that Goodrich is Spartz’s toughest opponent, and he has started to define her record through a number of on-air and digital ads.

Spartz was born in Soviet-controlled Ukraine in 1978, immigrated to the United States in 2000 and became a U.S. citizen in 2006. Goodrich is airing ads accusing Spartz of putting “Ukraine first” and prioritizing aid for the country over securing U.S. borders.

“Listen, I’ve done a lot of things, but unfortunately when people don’t have records [or have] a bad record, they try to drag you through mud,” Spartz said.

The ads have attracted the attention of national news outlets, such as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and NBC News, which have reported on the 5th District primary’s focus on aid to Ukraine.

Goodrich is “putting a lot of money and effort into it,” Kinsella said. “He’s got a well-oiled machine that is functioning, and if he’s able to continue to do that, that might be unusual, but he might be able to overcome that incumbent advantage.”

In 2023, Goodrich reported $699,000 in contributions and loaned $1 million to his campaign. A Purdue University graduate, Goodrich worked at Noblesville-based Gaylor Electric for nearly three decades before purchasing the company in 2014. The electrical contractor has more than 1,300 employees in eight Indiana offices and locations in Alabama, Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee.

While Goodrich is pushing Spartz on Ukraine, Spartz released an ad against Goodrich in which she says he voted to allow Chinese companies to buy Indiana farmland. In closing remarks at a candidate forum on April 4, Spartz accused Goodrich of “supporting bills to funnel money to China.”

The farmland statement is related to House Bill 1138, which Gov. Eric Holcomb signed into law earlier this year. It prohibits people or organizations from six countries—Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela—from owning or leasing Hoosier farmland along with mineral, riparian or water rights.

Goodrich voted for House Bill 1138 when the House passed it initially and again on final passage after the Senate made changes, according to legislative records. But Spartz’s ad and comments appear to refer to a change made to the bill to accommodate an existing property owned by a Switzerland-based agri-chemical company that was acquired by ChemChina in 2017.

Goodrich said Spartz’s comments misrepresent the legislation. “All you have to do is look at the bill,” he said.

Race to May 7

Goodrich told IBJ his campaign’s internal polling shows the race is close, and he sees himself gaining momentum in the final weeks of the campaign. There’s been no public polling in the district.

“People are now engaged in the race,” Goodrich said. “We’ve been running for over a year. We’ve gained a lot of name recognition. People have seen my voting record.”

A certified public accountant, Spartz ran her own consulting business before taking a job as chief financial officer for the Indiana attorney general in 2017. Later that year, she was appointed to the Indiana Senate to replace retiring Luke Kenley in the 20th District.

In 2020, she won election to represent the 5th Congressional District, succeeding longtime Rep. Susan Brooks. Spartz had contributed more than $1 million of her own finances to partially fund her campaign, money she said she and her husband, Jason Spartz, earned through successful real estate investments.

Last year, she was known for breaking ranks with McCarthy during his dramatic and contentious bid to represent the GOP in the chamber, voting “present” on three occasions before eventually siding with McCarthy. She also publicly criticized his decision to oust two Democrats from the House Oversight Committee.

In her campaign, Spartz is focusing on border security, national debt and health care. Spartz called herself a believer in states’ rights and thinks the centralization of power in the federal government is a major ingredient for communism and socialism.

She called the country’s southern border “a serious national security risk considering how many international conflicts we’re involved with and what’s happening in the Middle East.

“I think this is a serious problem, and it shouldn’t be political,” she said. “But unfortunately, it became political.”

Goodrich was elected to state office in 2018 after winning a four-way contested primary to represent House District 29.

In 2023, Goodrich was the author and driving force behind House Bill 1002, part of an effort by Republican lawmakers to redesign the high school curriculum and prepare students for the workforce by expanding work-based learning opportunities.

The legislation was supported by the business community but opposed by state and local education leaders who maintained that creating a new system was unnecessary given that Indiana already has career and technical education programs.

Goodrich said his top priorities if elected to Congress are tackling generational poverty, removing regulations against businesses and personal liberty, securing the southern border and enforcing a fiscal budget for the United States.

“We’ve got to put dignity back in work,” Goodrich said. “We have to get rid of this negative [stigma] about working with their hands because there’s a lot of money to be made and great careers in all these fields that have a negative [stigma]. And so I believe that is the absolute way to eliminate generational poverty now in the state of Indiana.”

While Chinthala and Engling might be considered long shots to win, they are still courting voters.

Chinthala founded the Indiana India Business Council, which seeks to strengthen economic ties between the state and the south Asian country. He said he would focus in Congress on stopping illegal immigration, approving medical marijuana, and building a new VA hospital in the 5th District to serve veterans.

“We must focus on, how do we get our communities better so that we can leave a better government, smart government, less government, fiscally responsible government to the next generation?” Chinthala said. “We must not leave this to the next generation because they will be paying for a lot of things. It has to be blamed on both Republicans as well as Democrats.”

Engling said he is “a conservative guy who will push for conservative values.” He said his experience as a congressional staffer in Washington, D.C., prepared him for Congress, and his focus is on saving and strengthening Social Security, addressing the rising cost of living, reducing regulations on small and medium-size businesses and strengthening the American energy industry.

“I’ve got four kids [of] my own, and I look to the future and the next generation,” he said. “And I want to make sure that we’re leaving a country that is in a better shape than it is now, and it’s in pretty rough shape right now.”•

Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified Democratic candidate Ryan Pfenninger. The article has been updated.