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How Victoria Spartz's Ukrainian roots influence her conservative values
Ask Indiana's 5th Congressional District Republican candidate Victoria Spartz why she is running for Congress and she’ll reference her childhood in Soviet-controlled Ukraine.
In one of her primary campaign ads entitled “Stop Socialism,” Spartz, who immigrated to the U.S. in 2000, can be seen staring out a window as images of a red flag with Vladimir Lenin’s face on it and people waiting in long lines for food flash on the screen.
“Born in the Soviet Union,” a voiceover says, "Victoria Spartz knows the misery of socialism."
And it's more than a campaign message.
In conversations, she’ll tell the story of how her grandfather watched as his dad had to leave the small farm he owned as Soviet Union leaders stole families' grain, forced people to give up their private property and join collective farms. He would tell her of how he went hungry during the Ukraine man-made famine in the 1930s and had to eat potato peels.
“He always told me, ‘Victoria, you always have to be free from the government,’” Spartz told IndyStar, “‘because the government brings a lot of destruction.’”
Spartz’s upbringing in the Soviet Union at least in part formed her belief that government involvement is inherently bad and ineffective and should only be used as a tool to incentivize society's betterment. Those values — and the financial wherewithal to get her message out in a slew of campaign ads — led her to win by a wide margin in the crowded Republican 5th District primary in June, leaving political experts surprised.
But it’s those same beliefs and hyper-focus on individual rights that may have turned away some constituents during her tenure as a state senator — and may put her at risk in the 5th District general election.
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For more than two decades, Republicans have had little trouble winning the 5th District. But now, with Congresswoman Susan Brooks' retirement and other similar suburban districts turning more blue, pundits think there's a chance a Democrat could win.Local political science experts, however, still give Spartz the upper hand.
‘American Dream’
If Spartz wins in November, Brooks, who leads recruitment for the House Republicans and supports Spartz in the general election, said Spartz would be the first Republican female immigrant to ever be elected in the United States.
“Talk about the American dream,” Brooks said. “She left her country and has truly pursued and epitomizes the American dream story.”
Spartz, 41, spent her childhood in the Soviet Union as thedaughter of two local government transportation department engineers. It wasn’t until the 1990s that the Soviet Union collapsed, giving Ukraine its independence.
She received her Bachelor’s degree in international economics and master’s degree in business administration from the National University of Economics in Ukraine. Back then, she said, half of academia was focused on communist and socialist polices and half was based on capitalism.
Plus, she added, she was young and adventurous. When her husband, Jason, an American she met in college, asked to marry her and move to the United States, she said yes.
Once here, she said she realized no one valued her Ukrainian degree, so she knew she would have to work her way up. She started as a bank teller before she went back to school for her professional accountancy master's degree from Indiana University Indianapolis.
She spent time as a certified public accountant, knowledge she would use later as a state lawmaker, before eventually pulling back to spend more time with her two daughters, and instead started focusing on purchasing, farming and developing land in Hamilton County.
Whether by design or not,the same woman who grew emotional when talking about the loss of her family’s farm land ended up marrying into a family that had made a business of owning land.
Her in-laws own Westbrook Village, a mobile home park in Noblesville, and the land around it — the type of project Spartz said she would love to tackle by herself eventually….
But probably nothing tested Spartz’s popularity more than when the 2018 Noblesville school shooting left a student and teacher injured in her own district.
In the aftermath of the shooting, some parents formed a group called Noblesville Stands Together to advocate for changes to keep students safer.Parents from that group said Spartz didn’t help them, and instead stood in their way even as they received help from Republican lawmakers outside of their district.
(Nazi, wolf in sheeps clothing. She didn't listen to her grandparents to stay out of gov)
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2020/08/27/meet-indianas-5th-congressional-district-candidate-victoria-spartz/5449871002/