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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA Democratic former Indiana state legislator is looking to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz in next year’s election.
Former state Rep. Melanie Wright of Yorktown announced her campaign for central Indiana’s 5th District on Facebook, saying she wanted to help others and solve problems regardless of political affiliation.
Spartz won her first term in Congress after a tight and expensive campaign last year against Democrat Christina Hale. But the Republican redrawing of congressional districts approved last week shifted the Democratic-leaning north side of Indianapolis out of the 5th District and gave it more GOP-friendly rural areas north and northeast of the city.
Wright, a music teacher at Daleville Elementary School, won election three times to the Indiana House from a district covering parts of Delaware and Madison counties before being defeated in 2020.
Wright said she believed she had the experience and connections needed to run a competitive campaign against Spartz.
“Just because people look at it and think that it might not be doable, I can’t let that stop me from getting a moderate message out there,” Wright told The Herald Bulletin. “I’m a moderate person. I feel like that message needs to get out there, and that’s important to me.”
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