U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz has fired back at Democratic challenger J.D. Ford, telling him his allegations about her stock trades and campaign spending stem from an “inability to understand financial disclosure statements.”
The Republican congresswoman’s letter, dated Sept. 22, answers the 495-page response Ford’s campaign released a day earlier. Both are seeking Indiana’s 5th District congressional seat, which includes Hamilton County.
“I will give you the benefit of the doubt and attribute your accusations to your inability to understand financial disclosure statements rather than an intentional attempt to misrepresent them or fabricate allegations,” Spartz wrote.
On the stock trades, Spartz says there is only one TD Ameritrade account holding stock, and it already held cash before she took office, as reflected in her candidate disclosure filed April 2, 2020. Candidates are not required to file periodic transaction reports, she wrote, so activity in that account before she became a member did not appear on PTRs.
Ford’s response had noted that Spartz’s earlier transaction filings did not identify the trades as her husband’s. Spartz says that notation is not required, but that after discussions with the House Ethics Committee in August 2021 it was suggested she add the information for clarity, which she has done since. She says she initiated a call with the committee to confirm her report was filed properly and was later advised to mark the IRA as her spouse’s account.
“It should be self-evident that if there is only one account disclosed as owning the stock, and subsequent transactions involving that stock are identified as occurring in Jason Spartz’s Roth IRA, it is the same account,” she wrote.
She enclosed a May 2021 TD Ameritrade statement for an account listed under Jason Matthew Spartz’s Roth IRA. It shows the Alaska Air Group and Southwest Airlines sales Ford questioned, and a Simon Property Group position purchased Dec. 11, 2020 — before she took office — with a market value of about $1.1 million. Her husband bought that stock with proceeds from sales of smaller farmland parcels, she said, and sold most of it in 2024 to buy a larger parcel at public auction.
Spartz devoted much of the letter to the Moontown Road property in Westfield. She said she and her husband provided the property as campaign headquarters for more than six years “essentially for nothing,” other than reimbursement of direct expenses such as utilities, taxes and insurance. A nominal in-kind amount was reported, she said, and in 2025 her finance team suggested establishing a rent payment based on market-value estimates.
The rate is $2,500 a month for a 2,829-square-foot property on three acres. For comparison, Spartz said her official congressional office about five minutes away pays $2,834 a month for 1,790 square feet with no garage or acreage.
“Your suggestion that someone is enriching themselves by receiving $30,000 in rent payments in total for six years of use by campaign of a prime rental property in Westfield by Grand Park is completely absurd,” she wrote, adding that Federal Election Commission rules require campaigns to account for use of candidate-owned property.
Campaign materials, signs, a sign truck and a parade vehicle have been stored there for years, she said. She is discontinuing use of the property after this election and has listed it for sale.
Spartz also took a personal shot at Ford, noting he “just recently rented a house in Carmel to run for this office,” and arguing that “public service should be a tour of duty, not a career.”
She closed by saying she looks forward to the public debate. The letter was copied to election attorney Jason B. Torchinsky.