During the State of the Union, an attractive woman dressed in yellow dress and blue jacket
caught my attention as she applauded Biden comments on Ukraine.
She sat with the Republicans but I was curious who she was.
Indiana's Victoria Spartz
GOP leaders say Ms. Spartz, the only Ukrainian-American member of Congress, has been one of the most effective advocates for escalating efforts to squeeze Moscow and help Kyiv, including a bipartisan push to ban oil-and-gas imports from Russia. The 43-year-old former businesswoman and state senator, who has family and friends still in Ukraine, also wants the U.S. to quickly get more weapons and humanitarian aid to the country.
“This is not war. This is genocide of the Ukrainian people by a crazy man,” Ms. Spartz said at a news conference last week in which she called for blocking oil imports and other steps to punish Russian leader Vladimir Putin. President Biden must act “decisively, fast, or this blood of many millions of Ukrainians will be on his hands too,” she said. Later in the week, in a speech on the House floor, she softened her tone, saying lawmakers “should put pressure on our president to be more decisive and have stronger actions.”
(snip)
Ms. Spartz said she isn’t calling for the U.S. to get directly involved in the conflict. She echoed Mr. Biden in saying U.S. troops shouldn’t be deployed in the fighting and said that a no-fly zone, floated by some lawmakers, was unrealistic, as it could put the U.S. and Russia in direct conflict. At the same time, her personal story and ties to Ukraine have struck a chord within the party and made her the face of Republicans calling for ratcheting up the U.S. response... She said Thursday she hadn’t been able to reach her 95-year-old grandmother after the building next to her apartment was bombed. She said she worried constantly about utilities, such as electricity and water, being turned off and people running out of food.
(snip)
Ms. Spartz, who represents a district that includes the north part of Indianapolis and some of its suburbs, moved to the U.S. from Ukraine at age 21 in 2000 after meeting her future husband on a train in Europe. She had attended college in Kyiv after growing up in the Chernihiv region.
More..
https://www.wsj.com/articles/gops-victoria-spartz-born-in-ukraine-aims-to-step-up-u-s-response-to-russia-11646492401 (subscription)
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I don't know anything about her but she certainly caught my eyes during the State of the Union.
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