Can the GOP prove it’s fit to govern? Ask Victoria Spartz

Who can do it? Look to freshman Rep. Victoria Spartz.

Spartz, sent to Congress from suburban Indianapolis, is in the camp of “reasonable Republicans” that gets much less oxygen than do the fringes of the party. Her resume is impressive: After growing up in socialist Ukraine, she immigrated to the United States in 2000. In less than two decades, she moved from bank teller to finance executive, becoming an expert in public debt. She then ran for office in Indiana, clearing a seven-way primary to join the state Senate, where she worked on transparency, reducing healthcare costs, and reforming the juvenile justice system — all before winning a tough race in a swing seat last November.

But you hear a lot less about her than another freshman Republican woman, the notorious Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who represents the “bombast wing” of the GOP. She has a thinner resume, a catalogue of unnecessary Holocaust references, and a much greater ability to garner headlines and turn off swing voters who want their leadership not livestreaming diatribes but legislating.

If these voters can hear more from the practical Republicans such as Spartz and less from the bombastic ones, they will reward the GOP, whose brand has been incredibly damaged with the young and college-educated.

Here’s why.

First is Spartz herself. She is policy-driven, is substantive, and puts an emphasis on hard work rather than flash. She has highlighted the dire need to rein in the national debt, an escalating issue she understands from her time in the business world and in Indiana’s state Legislature. And she grasps a fundamental political problem that has grown since FDR’s New Deal government: the need for our legislatures to become stronger and take power away from the administrative state (regardless of who is wielding its power).

She is, in a word, reasonable. You can simply watch her speak to understand the seriousness of her approach and the need for her perspective in our halls of power.

That’s not to mention her inspiring history of leaving a socialist economy to find success in America. She could be a positive messenger for a big tent GOP to immigrant and diverse communities that have actually begun to flip toward Republicans.

Unfortunately, many Republicans and right-leaning media outlets, just like the rest of the country, are in the thrall of the bombastic. Spartz, in her seriousness, could seem boring for those of us who are used to incendiary politics. But what comes with boredom is something potentially great, something our nation sorely needs: stability, continuity, and trust. Stability is, after all, what keeps a society around into perpetuity. If the Right can elevate more leaders like Spartz, it will prove itself to be the adult in the room, win elections, and handle big decisions.

It may even have real solutions on high-priority policy issues such as the cost of healthcare when it regains power, in contrast to a party that was mortifyingly caught flat-footed on its alternative for Obamacare after it took back control of the government in 2017.

Most Americans are not online reactionaries. We are regular people hoping for policies that make our lives better and leaders who are willing to legislate and compromise. There is a broad middle at play, which looks to its left and sees radicalism and ineptitude and to its right sees a fringe of reactionary idiots.

But there is more to the Right, and if it wishes to win and wield power, elevating voices such as Victoria Spartz’s would be an intelligent place to begin.

Albert Eisenberg (@Albydelphia) is a millennial political consultant based in Philadelphia, a Young Voices contributor, and a Maverick PAC Future 40 awardee. He focuses on urban and diversity issues from the Right and is a founder of Broad + Liberty.