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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana State Sen. Victoria Spartz, R-Noblesville, announced Wednesday that she was considering entering the crowded race for U.S. Congress in the 5th District.
Spartz defeated six other candidates in a caucus vote in September 2017 to fill former Sen. Luke Kenley’s seat in Senate District 20. Her term ends in 2020, but she has been running for another term.
She said Wednesday she was “suspending her race for state Senate to explore her run for Congress.”
Six other Republicans have entered the race to replace Susan Brooks, who has represented the district since 2013 and announced in June that she would not seek re-election in 2020.
Former Bureau of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Kent Abernathy, retired Riley Hospital for Children doctor Chuck Dietzen, Indiana State Treasurer Kelly Mitchell, Noblesville pastor Micah Beckwith, Concise Capital Management fund accountant Danny Niederberger and farmer Beth Henderson also are running.
Republican Steve Braun suspended his campaign for the seat in October due to an unspecified health issue.
The 5th District includes the northern portion of Indianapolis and the northern and eastern suburbs.
“I look forward to serving the great people of Hamilton County for the rest of my term in the state Senate and meeting more people in the 5th District in the next few weeks to make a decision on my run for Congress,” Spartz said in a written statement.
Prior to becoming a state senator, Spartz served in financial leadership positions for Fortune 200 companies and was the chief financial officer of the Indiana Office of Attorney General.
Spartz, who was raised in the Ukraine before becoming an American citizen, is a Noblesville resident, an adjunct faculty member at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business in Indianapolis and has served as the vice chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party.
She said she felt she could be more effective at making societal change at the federal level than in state office.
“As I took a deeper dive in the last few months into a number of issues affecting our state, like education, health care, welfare and business deregulation, I realized that the control of the states by the federal government is way more significant than I could ever anticipate,” she said. “Our federal government is broken and dysfunctional with uncontrolled spending and ever-increasing socialistic trends. “
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