Ukrainian-born Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) announced Friday that she would not seek Indiana’s open Senate seat and will retire from Congress at the end of her term.
Spartz shared a link to her announcement on Twitter. In the announcement, she wrote that she plans to spend more time with her children once she leaves office (via Victoria Sparks):
It’s been my honor representing Hoosiers in the Indiana State Senate and U.S. Congress and I appreciate the strong support on the ground. 2024 will mark seven years of holding elected office and over a decade in Republican politics. I won a lot of tough battles for the people and will work hard to win a few more in the next two years. 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.
According to NBC News, Spartz was “weighing a run” for her state’s open Senate seat in the 2024 election, which her colleague Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) announced his campaign for this month. Indiana Sen. Mike Braun filed paperwork last year to run for governor of Indiana in 2024.
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Spartz assumed office in 2021 and became the first Ukrainian-born member of Congress. This month, she voted “present” multiple times during the vote for Speaker of the House before ultimately supporting Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). According to Politico, Spartz was initially against removing Democratic house members from their committees before reversing course and supporting the removal of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Before serving in the U.S. Congress, Spartz served in the Indiana state Senate. She immigrated to the United States in 2000 after meeting her husband in Europe, according to her website. She then became an American citizen, and said that “growing up in Ukraine molded her conservative political philosophy.
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