SHERIDAN, Ind. (AP) – U.S. Rep. Victoria Sparta, the first and only Ukrainian-born congresswoman, emerged early as a natural advocate for supporting her native country in its war with Russia. But when $61 billion in additional aid for the war effort was recently discussed in the House of Representatives, she voted against it.
Instead, she has called for better oversight of U.S. funds and opposes giving “blank checks” to the Ukrainian cause. She says U.S. border security should be a bigger priority.
That puts her more in line with conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives and more specifically with voters in her deeply conservative congressional district in central Indiana. She is locked in a tough reelection fight in the May 7 Republican primary, made all the more complicated by her public announcement more than a year ago that she would not seek another term, a decision she later reversed.
The aid package, part of a larger bill that also included aid to Israel, Taiwan and other global hotspots, was passed by the House of Representatives on April 20, passed by the Senate on Tuesday and signed into law by President Joe Biden on Wednesday.
Spartz said she is “a little shocked” at the idea that her heritage should dictate support for the Ukrainian cause if she thinks the money would be wasted.
“My responsibility is to protect the American people,” she said during a recent interview.
Spartz spoke at an event hosted by the Hamilton County GOP at a community center in Sheridan, Indiana, a town of a few thousand residents. The event, held in a hall just off the city’s Main Street, was attended by eight of the Republican Party’s nine primary candidates, who were able to make their case one by one to voters and Republican officials in the county during a meet-and-greet including short speeches from the candidates.
Mike Murphy, a former Indiana state representative and political commentator, said in a telephone interview that financing Ukraine is not really a priority for Republican voters these days. Concerns about the southern border are a larger catalyst for participation, which is not lost on candidates in the conservative district. Most of Spartaz’s opponents for the 5th District seat have said protecting the U.S.-Mexico border should be a bigger priority than sending money to Ukraine.
“They’re all trying to be as Trump-like as possible,” Murphy said.
Border security has been pressured by state representative during the campaign. Chuck Goodrich, the best-funded of Sparta’s eight challengers. He has attacked Spartaz for its original support for Ukraine, saying it is “putting Ukraine first.”
Goodrich, who attended the Sheridan event, acknowledged that Indiana is far from Mexico but said illegal drugs such as fentanyl enter the U.S. through the southern border and pose a threat deep into the interior.
“Every state is a border state,” he said in an interview.
Spartaz defeated a crowded primary field in 2020 with Donald Trump‘s approval, winning nearly 40% of the vote. She ran unopposed in the 2022 primaries.
Spartaz made things harder for herself when she announced in early 2023 that she would no longer be running, citing fatigue with Washington politics and her desire to spend more time with her family. She also threatened to resign if the national debt is not addressed.
For a year, the runway remained clear for candidates to campaign in one of the state’s most conservative districts, made up of a mix of rural and suburban counties north of Indianapolis. Trump easily captured the district in 2020, and it was redistricted that same year to further favor Republicans.
Campaign finance reports show that Spartaz trails Goodrich in campaign funds, in part because Goodrich has put up $2.6 million of his own money. Goodrich, who represents the wealthy Indianapolis suburb of Hamilton County in the state Legislature, has outspent Spartz by $1.9 million in the first three months of 2024 and has loaned his campaign a total of $4.6 million, according to reports.
Spartaz entered the final weeks before the primaries with $134,000 in cash, compared to Goodrich’s $1.3 million.
Trump has not endorsed in the 5th District this year. He is ambivalent about aid to Ukraine. He says the war would not have happened if he had been president and that any aid should take the form of loans rather than grants.
Even with Spartaz’s short campaign career, she retains her incumbency advantage. She has accused Goodrich of having good ties to China, calling him “Republican in Name Only.”
Now that Trump’s Republican nomination for president has been secured, turnout is expected to be low.
Spartz, 45, immigrated to the U.S. in 2000 after meeting her husband from Indiana on a train in Europe. She started as a bank teller, later taught as an adjunct faculty member at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and owns a farm.
After a longtime senator retired before the end of his term, Hamilton County GOP officials chose Spartz, who was involved with the county party, to fill out his term in 2017. She served three sessions in the state House before her election to Congress.
At an emotional press conference in 2022, Spartaz called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a “genocide.” She described the bombings her grandmother and friends had witnessed in Ukraine.
Later that year, she began criticizing Ukrainian leaders, including President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In the Sheridan interview, Spartz said that “brave people” are “dying for freedom” in Ukraine, but accused the Ukrainian government of corruption.
During her speech to voters, Spartz made no mention of the war in Ukraine. Instead, she framed her reelection bid as a fight against the party’s hypocrisy, saying some of her fellow Republicans are acting like socialists.
Drawing on her experiences growing up in the Soviet Union, as she did many times during her political career, she warned of a socialist future in the United States.
“I am going to fight the righteous fight,” she declared.
