WASHINGTON — Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., said Friday she won't seek re-election in 2024, becoming the first House member to announce retirement in the current election cycle.
"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," Spartz said in a statement.
"I won a lot of tough battles for the people and will work hard to win a few more in the next two years," she continued. "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."
Spartz, 44, has served in the House since 2021 and has had an eventful start to the new Congress. She went from "yes" to "present" and back to "yes" on Speaker Kevin McCarthy's bid for the gavel in a weeklong series of votes. She initially came out against her party's push to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar, R-Minn., from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, calling it a "charade" — before flipping to yes.
Spartz, a Ukrainian-born American, was also weighing a run for her state's open seat in the U.S. Senate in 2024, but the GOP establishment has lately been coalescing around Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind.
The decision to retire instead could alleviate political pressure on her in the next two years, under the narrow GOP House majority.
