It was the town hall that wasn’t supposed to happen.

For the better part of two hours Friday night, pissed-off Hoosiers jeered, chanted, and booed at Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., one of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s most fervent supporters in Congress.

It was a case in point for why senior Republican leaders have advised their members against holding such events at all.

Spartz, however, is often at odds with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. She plowed through the taunts as a crowd outside shouted, “Do your job!” Inside, the crowd roared in anger at mentions of Elon Musk and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

With GOP members dodging in-person town halls, the meeting offered a rare window into the depths of disgust in red districts over DOGE. Spartz represents a conservative district in a state that broke for Donald Trump over Kamala Harris by 59 percent to 40 percent.

Brian Jonasen, an Air Force veteran who has helped organize protests at the Indiana Statehouse, said, “The one thing we hope that maybe she takes back with her is that the people are mad. They are angry.”

Shouting at Spartz

“We are not paid to do this,” said Jonasen, the protest organizer.

Johnson, the House Speaker, has claimed, baselessly, that the crowds are full of paid protesters.

Earlier this month, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee told members to stop holding them, according to Politico.

They may have been hoping to avoid spectacles like the one that unfolded Friday at a packed conference center in Westfield, about 20 miles north of downtown Indianapolis.

The at-capacity crowd of 500 people at first listened respectfully as Spartz, a CPA who has made deficit reduction her signature issue, presented her concerns about federal debt.

Then Spartz started talking about DOGE — and the crowd erupted. As Musk’s name was mentioned, the crowd began shouting.

“Do your job!” audience members repeatedly chanted, urging her to rein in Musk and DOGE.

Within 15........

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