Who Is Victoria Spartz? Congresswoman To Stop Caucusing With Republicans To Focus On DOGE

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With Donald Trump returning to the White House and the Supreme Court dominated by conservatives, the Republican Party looks poised to wield significant power in Washington, as it also won slim majorities in both houses of Congress in November’s election. However, that political dominance is now being threatened by a possible defection by a GOP congresswoman to focus on an outside agency created to push Trump’s agenda.

‘I would rather spend more of my time helping DOGE’

‘I would rather spend more of my time helping DOGE’

Indiana Rep. Victoria Spartz announced Monday that she no longer plans to cooperate with her fellow Republican members of Congress. In a tweet on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Spartz declared that while she “will stay as a registered Republican,” she “will not sit on committees or participate in the [Republican] caucus until I see that Republican leadership in Congress is governing.” Writing that she does not want “to be involved in circuses,” Spartz continued that she “would rather spend more of my time helping @DOGE and @RepThomasMassie to save our Republic.”

Pursuing plans for massive budget, tax cuts

The announcement came as a response to a tweet by Kentucky Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, who pledged his support for the Department of Government Efficiency. Although the details of this organization remain unclear, DOGE is a nongovernmental agency being created with Donald Trump’s blessing by X owner Elon Musk and venture capitalist Vivek Ramaswamy to audit and suggest massive cuts to the federal budget. In a separate Tweet, Spartz wrote that Trump, Musk and Ramaswamy “are our only hope to drain the swamp through reconciliation,” referring to the congressional budgeting process of reconciliation through which Trump and the co-leaders of DOGE are seeking to make $2 trillion in budget cuts. Although they claim that these cuts will come through identifying waste and fraud, experts warn that such colossal cuts could only come through massive cuts in government programs and services, especially given plans to cut taxes as well.

GOP’s House majority shrinking

While Spartz has framed her plans as an attempt to support Trump’s agenda, her actions threaten the ability of Republicans to push through that agenda in Congress. Currently, the GOP is set to have 220 members in the House of Representatives come January, as opposed to 215 Democrats. However, this slim majority is already threatened by a number of resignations and appointments. Controversial Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz resigned from his seat after being nominated by Trump for United States Attorney General; though Gaetz withdrew his nomination over allegations of sex trafficking, he will not be returning to Congress in order to pursue opportunities in the private sector. Several other GOP members of Congress have been nominated to serve roles in the Trump administration, which could shrink the Republican majority in the House if any of those seats switch parties. Spartz’s noncooperation with Republicans could therefore potentially cost them another GOP vote at a time when they might not have many votes to spare.

Spartz’s actions may be a statement of principle, or they might be the result of a dispute over committee assignments, as anonymous sources suggested to Politico. Either way, her partial defection from her fellow Republicans in Congress highlights divides within the seemingly dominant Republican Party that could complicate its plans and leave an opening for Democrats to push back against the conservative agenda taking control in Washington.

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