Victoria Spartz, (R-District 5) hosted a town hall meeting at Muncie City Hall March 29.
Spartz was met with boos and jeers from attendees and protestors both inside and out, as the city hall building was well-past its 150-person occupancy.
The Noblesville republican welcomed opposition with hope for a “vibrant conversation.”
Against the advice of her team, Spartz said she is one of the few republicans left to host a town hall for “security reasons.”
Spartz answered questions for two hours as people yelled over her answers and booed mentions of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, the face of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Frequent chants of “do your job” and “tax the rich” echoed in the meeting room.
Amid the heckling, Spartz was asked questions about her plans to ensure Medicaid and Social Security benefits for Hoosisers, including providing adequate health care for veterans. Spartz expressed a push to provide citizens with better health benefits than what Medicaid or related programs can offer.
“We can provide better value [as it] is becoming a bigger, bigger problem. We need to deal with some of these big ticket items and be able to say this and provide better benefits,” she said
Spartz, who said, “Trump has been very helpful to me,” also works closely in support of Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, sharing his mission to return control of education to the states.
Braun attended Trump’s March 20 executive order signing to eliminate the Department of Education and said via social media, “Education is a state and local responsibility. I support President Trump’s bold action to return education to where it belongs and to put parents in the driver’s seat of their children’s education,” according to Indiana Capital Chronicle.
Spartz echoed the sentiments from both Trump and Braun.
“Both sides need to acknowledge that education is broken. More bureaucracy is not going to fix that,” she said.
The Ukrainian-born immigrant was also asked about her refusal to provide aid to Ukraine, something Braun’s predecessor, Eric Holcomb, was passionate about.
“My number one job is to protect American interest,” she said. “I will not support open borders. It’s a very serious national security concern.”
The evident political tensions prompted an attendee to ask Spartz directly, “Can [politicians] just stop doing right and left and focus on right and wrong?”
Outside, on the steps of city hall, Tommy Miller, a veteran and avid protester, said he is excited Muncie is coming together. Miller, during community-related protests, said his goal is to spread awareness about the importance of voting and political involvement.
“I am a veteran and I believe in this country for everybody, not just a couple of rich folks,” Miller said.
Sue Errington, (D-District 34 ) attended the town hall to “hear out” congresswoman Spartz, but said she couldn’t get in due to the building’s maximum capacity being reached.
Errington said she hoped this protest would allow Hoosiers to see what is happening in Washington and how it is going to affect them as well as how they don’t just have to sit at home but rather if they are upset they can come out and show that.
She also wants younger people to care about this since it is going to affect them for longer than affect her. She sees that younger people have the energy to say, ‘No this is not the future we want.’
“For the young people, this is truly going to affect your lives, your ability to get a good job,” Errington said.
Deborah Creek who is a volunteer for the Democratic Headquarters who was trying to get in but was turned away even though she had a ticket that was marked 50. Even though she couldn’t get in she still “was having a wonderful time being able to scream, protest and make her voice heard.”
Deborah Creek smiles for a photo in front of Muncie City Hall March 29 during a protest against Indiana District 5 representative Victoria Spartz. Trinity Rea, DN
Creek said she wanted others to care about democracy.
“Our democracy is being destroyed, because even the lowest level of government is following these horrendous laws being enacted by Trump,” Creek said.
Creek was also a United States Army Reserve veteran so ends on a powerful statement.
“The oath I took is still valid. I still honor it, I took an oath to the constitution, not to a man or to a party,” she said
The protestors weren’t the only protestors that came to the town hall. There was a small group of counter-protesters who joined.
While they were shouting back the group of protestors swarmed the and then punched one of the counter-protesters in the face. Cops arrived at the town hall shortly after where they remained for the rest of the protest. One of the counter protestors, who asked to be anonymous, said he didn’t expect there to be an escalation but knew that it may happen when they went down there.
The other proseter stood his ground and explained how he doesn’t like violence but rather civil discourse. He said he has friends who are “literal Communists” but they are good friends because “they are good people who want civil discourse.”
“Even though we may be the minority, we are the vocal minority, and we are going to stand up for ourselves,” he said.
Contact Shelby Anderson via email at sanderson9@bsu.edu. Contact Katherine Hill via email at katherine.hill@bsu.edu.
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