WESTFIELD, Ind.—Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) ignored the advice of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and braved a town hall meeting with a feisty group of constituents, answering the public’s questions in the face of persistent heckling for two hours.
Undaunted, Spartz welcomed about 500 attendees to the March 28 event. “I hope we can have a conversation,” she said in opening remarks. “I do town halls because it gives me the ability to have direct communication with all the people.”
Spartz acknowledged the tension in the room when introducing her staff, saying: “They’re very nervous because there’s a lot of drama happening. So if you get upset, just scream at me, not them.”
Within minutes, many attendees took Spartz up on that.
The congresswoman, an accountant by training who operates a family farm with her husband, began with prepared remarks on the country’s nearly $2 trillion revenue shortfall and $36 trillion national debt. In response to shouted comments on taxation, Spartz said, “Even if we take all of the money from the richest people, will not be able to pay the debt.”
The room erupted into heckling, which continued off and on throughout the event.
Attendees who had waited in a line snaking through the venue parking lot talked about their frustration before the event began.
“Our leadership has lost their way,” Shelley Fabrizio, 68, of Fishers, told The Epoch Times.
David Wellington, 38, of Noblesville, said: “We want answers. I think a lot of us are very upset with what’s going on in Washington right now. It seems like there is one person doing damage to everything with no one sticking up for all of us.”
“We are watching many of our constitutional values—and the Constitution—be defiled in a lot of ways,” Pam Williams, 53, of Sheridan, told The Epoch Times. “People are getting snatched off the streets. They’re getting snatched at border entry points. They’re disappearing into private prisons with no due process,” Williams said, referring to the arrest and deportation of illegal immigrants.
Some 500 people were denied entry to the event because of space limitations, about two dozen of whom remained outside displaying signs and chanting.
Inside, Spartz took questions ranging from the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s executive orders to the power apparently wielded by the unelected Musk and his team, and concern over the impact of funding cuts to the departments of Veterans Affairs, Education, and others.
Laura Merrifield Wilson, a political science professor at the University of Indianapolis, served as the nonpartisan moderator, selecting the questions and introducing the questioners.
Though most questions were thoughtfully posed, attendees frequently interrupted Spartz’s answers with boos and shouted comments.
Spartz was undeterred. “You disagree with me,” she said at one point. “Okay, let me answer the question.”
The congresswoman’s answers focused on Congress’s inability to function due to hyper-partisanship, which she said was evidenced by its persistent failure to pass appropriations bills. Spartz contended this was the root of many problems attendees asked about.
A man named Dylan, from Westfield, questioned the constitutionality of the administration’s spending cuts in comments that drew sustained applause from the crowd.
“The president and the executive branch have stolen your exclusive constitutional authority over appropriations,” he said. “When are you going to live up to your oath, defend the Constitution, and reclaim the powers that the voters of this district have reserved for you?”
Spartz said that while she does not agree with all of Trump’s actions, the deeper issue is Congress’s failure to manage its spending choices.
“Congress doesn’t look at 85 percent of what happening,” Spartz said to jeers from the audience. “That is the broken system that we have to fix.”
The congresswoman has clashed with GOP leaders over spending in the past and said she would not vote for an increase in the federal debt limit.
Spartz repeatedly stressed the need for fiscal restraint.
She said she favored supporting NATO and deterring Russian aggression but would prefer to use financial incentives and punishments. As for ongoing military aid for Ukraine—her native country—Spartz said, “No blank checks. We need to have a strategy, and we need to know where the money is spent.”
On cutting funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, “I don’t think government should be ... spending money subsidizing media,” Spartz said. “There are plenty of ways to fund media now.”
Regarding Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, Spartz echoed the administration’s position that these programs would be preserved for elderly, low-income, and disabled Americans but should be improved by cutting fraud, waste, and abuse to ensure those services benefit their intended recipients.
These answers were unpopular with many attendees, perhaps a hundred of whom walked out in protest during the second hour. A few others strolled the hall carrying protest signs.
A minority of attendees applauded Spartz’s views on the need for border security and for a change in the post-World War II status quo in international affairs. Some who rose to offer questions thanked Spartz for her willingness to participate in the forum. A couple of questioners chided fellow attendees for interrupting the speaker.
Spartz has represented Indiana’s Fifth Congressional District since 2021.
Trump carried the district’s more rural Grant County with 70 percent of the vote in 2020. However, in 2024, increasingly purple Hamilton County—Spartz’s home and the site of the town hall—favored Trump with 52 percent of the vote.
Spartz saw her own margin of victory drop by 4.5 percentage points in the 2024 election.
“People really engaged,” Wilson told The Epoch Times after the event. “Obviously, there was a lot of disagreement, but I think that’s par for the course right now in a town hall.”
Wilson added that it was important for constituents to feel heard and for the congresswoman to explain her positions.
Near the end of the event, Spartz acknowledged that her security team advised her not to hold the event but said, “I felt like we still need to have a conversation, regardless.”
In closing remarks, Spartz said, “I know that you’re very, very well frustrated,” her voice showing the strain of making herself heard above the crowd.
“[On] some issues, you don’t like to hear what I have to say, but hopefully we‘ll find some things that you like,“ she said. ”And we’ll try to continue this dialogue.”
Spartz will appear at a second town hall, in Muncie, on March 29.
