Latest / Breaking The Meta / She's a Public Defender Running Against Indiana's Rigged System | Victoria Martz

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She's a Public Defender Running Against Indiana's Rigged System | Victoria Martz · Breaking The Meta

• Breaking The Meta: My monthly premium went up about $200 a month from what it was this time last year. That's what leads to our rural hospitals closing down is because they just can't make a profit anymore because too few people are actually covered by insurance in the community. We've seen some hospitals in neighboring communities outside of the district close in just the last couple months here. I'm pretty sure our nearest labor unit is actually about 30 to 45 minutes away now. you Hello everyone and welcome to Breaking the Meta. My name is Mike Winson. Today we are sitting down with Victoria Martz who is running for District 55 Indiana State House. Hello Victoria, how are you doing today? Hey, I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me on this evening. Absolutely. ⁓ So the way we want to start out, especially because a lot of this is about giving you guys a way to let people know who you are is... Let's start with a little bit about who you are and why you decided to run for office in the first place. Definitely. Thank you so much for asking. So I am a criminal defense lawyer here in southeastern Indiana. So a lot of people know Cincinnati, big city. People love it. I love it. We're about 45 minutes outside of the Cincinnati area. And then we kind of cover the whole southeastern side of the state up to where it butts up against Ohio over here. ⁓ Like I said, I'm a criminal defense attorney. That's what I do full time I'm a public defender in two rural counties out here one for adults charged with criminal offenses the other for juveniles charged with acts that would be considered a crime if they were adults and then I also work as a private attorney and I go just about anywhere in the state that people want me to come represent them in ⁓ I'm also a mom. I have a three-year-old daughter and what propelled me to run for office. So I kind of always imagined that I did want to run for office someday. I originally started off as a deputy prosecutor in my first job with Marion County's prosecutor office, which is Indianapolis, Indiana. And so I kind of imagined a future where I did want to run for maybe a prosecutorship or a judgeship somewhere where I felt like I could affect just outcomes through that position of the office and being the policymaker. And then in 2024, I actually just got like a template email from the state level Democratic party and they're like, hey, if you've ever considered running for office, fill this form out. And if we think you're a good fit, we might get back to you. They got back to me the next day and they're like, hey, have you ever considered running for state of representatives? State House of Representatives. And I was like, I had not, but ever since that opportunity was brought to my attention, I actually did run that year, a very short race when I got caucused onto the ballot and I ran for about four months. But ever since then, I've started to see the power that being a state level representative really holds for affecting that greater level of change that really was what motivated me to want to get involved in politics in the first place. So it's something that I have my heart set on because I really want to make this rural area of Indiana a equitable society for everybody out here and really preserve and protect it to keep our natural ⁓ resources properly preserved out here. Yeah, I think sometimes people don't realize how important the state offices are, especially if we want to affect change. I know there's a lot of focus on federal offices, but depending on what you're talking about, depending on the changes you want, you need federal and state to actually be on the same page if you want to make some of these more drastic, larger changes that we keep saying we need. So it's good that we've got some really good people running for state office. Absolutely agree with you on that for sure. ⁓ So if you wouldn't mind now giving us a little bit of an idea of District 55. As you go around and you talk to people about what's going on there, what are the pain points? What are the things that most people in District 55 need help with if you get in that position? So, um, to paint kind of a lay of the land picture of district 55, our biggest cities out here in district 55 are the one that I live in, which is Batesville, Indiana. There's Brookville, Indiana, and then Connorsville, Indiana and Liberty, Indiana. These are all actually very rural towns. We're called cities, but we're really more equivalent to a town. The way I always kind of thought about it as a kid was. How close is the nearest Walmart for all of these towns? Except for Connorsville, they have a Walmart, but the rest of us, you've got to drive at least 20 plus minutes to reach the nearest Walmart. So it's a very rural community out here. ⁓ A lot of our jobs though, we are very much agricultural communities. So we have a ton of farmland out here, a lot of forests that are being preserved out here, but then we also have a lot of licensed professionals that reside in these cities that I just listed. And they tend to travel out of their cities for work. So a lot of people are going to Cincinnati or Indianapolis for work every day. Whereas, Connorsville, Indiana actually used to be a booming economy for the automotive industry way back 20 years or so ago. They actually originally made the Louisville long car, I believe it was called. And that was kind of where their auto industry started off and they used to have a Vistion plant. but as has happened to a lot of cities that find themselves in the rust belt these days, those industries they picked up and they moved their business elsewhere when they realized that they could make more money by moving their business somewhere where they could deprive the workers of more of the value of their labor, keeping more of the money made for themselves. So I am running to represent a lot of licensed professionals. We also have a lot of unionized companies out here. So in my town specifically, have the Baxter Company and the Hillenbrand Company, which Baxter Company makes medical devices, hospital beds, and then the Hillenbrand Company makes caskets. I know. caskets. Okay. I know. It's a very interesting industry we run out here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But what that means is that a lot of the people at those companies are unionized under the United Steelworkers Union out here. But because Indiana is what we call a right to work law state, that means that our state legislature in the last, I can't remember when it was exact, it was probably about eight to 10 years ago now, they passed that right to work law and you know. They've always been really good at messaging with the title there to make people enticed to vote yes for it in an agreement with it. But what it does in effect is it actually says unions have to cover every worker in a workplace that has been unionized, whether they pay into the union or not. So you don't actually have to be an active member. You get the coverage of the union by force under this law. and they do not get that matching contribution to keep up with the dollars that are being exercised against them by the corporation they're running to represent you against and protect your working rights against. So that's something that's a really big priority for me when I do get into the Indiana State House. I want to do everything I can to repeal that right to work law because when we have strong unions, we have strong worker rights across the state of Indiana. ⁓ And beyond that, a lot of our other jobs out here tend to be kind of standard gig economy jobs. know, a lot of work that is not under a contract where you have an agreed salary and where oftentimes big employers are working to keep you at below 40 hours a week so they can not only pay you minimum wage or only slightly above minimum wage, they also then don't have to pay for any benefits for you either. And so That's actually a really big priority for me as well is raising Indiana's minimum wage, kind like you were talking about before with how it's really important that the federal level and the state level work together. If the federal level representatives, we don't get enough in office there to raise the federal minimum wage to a reasonable amount. That is a big goal of mine is to make sure that our state raises minimum wage in a way that will also provide equity for small businesses. ⁓ I think a lot of small business owners get scared when we talk about raising minimum wage because they already run such a tight ship to keep a profit margin. But with my proposed plan for small business equity minimum wage increase, what we would do is we would provide subsidies for small businesses across the state, family owned businesses, and not do the same for corporations. And my goal in doing that would be to place us on more equal footing with corporations. Yeah. I think as much as there are all of these issues and rural, rural is not, rural America is not very different from practically any part of America, especially with a lot of the problems that are going on. But I think there's another issue that has become blatantly obvious, I think, in politics, is this idea of accountability or the lack thereof when it comes to our politicians. So the thing that I like to ask people is what does accountability mean to you? What does being held accountable by your constituents look like? Well, I think number one, accountability to your constituents means doing the true job of representative. And I feel very privileged that I've been able to insight into this as a criminal defense attorney. Your job as representative isn't to be a voice for yourself in the courtroom. It's not your place to be a voice for yourself in the state house when you have been hired by the people to represent all 30 some thousand of them. Your job and accountability to the people is to go out, talk to them regularly, make sure that they have opportunities to see you and ask you questions face to face. And then if they don't even know what issues, like maybe they don't even have the time to sit down on a regular day and think about what's really impacting me the most, being able to ask them the targeted issues to figure out what are you truly experiencing most heavily in your day-to-day life? And how can I bring that up to the state house to write and pass laws that are going to improve the status quo for you? ⁓ And I think, you know, I think this should be an easy answer too, but just doing what the majority of the people want you to do, not just making decisions off of a whim. or that seemingly appear to be motivated by perhaps big corporations that are lining your pockets in the election cycle instead. So I'm actually a grassroots candidate. I'm a sworn grassroots candidate. I will never take donations from a corporation or a corporate affiliated political action committee because I know how important it is that I never give the appearance that I would ever represent anybody else's interests other than the people I'm elected to represent. Yeah. Obviously, there are also Republicans in your district, conservatives in your district. What has been your experience walking around and interacting with people that have been historically conservative and may look at the D next to your name and not want to talk to you, especially considering all of the questionable things that this administration has done to hurt, especially rural America? over the last year and a few months? Yeah, well, that's a great question. And like I said, I mentioned I ran first back in 2024 and my messaging and my ability to do the job of a representative, I think has really grown since then, because I had no idea coming into this. Like, how should I talk to people that don't align with me politically? Because I want them to know I am here to represent their interest at the end of the day. And I don't want us to fall into the traps of talking about topics we don't agree on, but also I'm very unlikely going to ever have any hands in the baking process on either because of the fact that I'm running for state level position, not federal. So what I've noticed lately is we stand on all fours, myself and a lot of conservative leaning voters in my community on the biggest issues that matter, taking care of our workers, taking care of our veterans. ⁓ Making sure that there's accountability in not only the way that we are gathering taxes from the taxpayers, but also in the way that we're seeing it dispersed back to the communities around the state. Here in Indiana, that's become a serious issue. In the last year, we have seen our governor use taxpayer money to build a helipad for himself because he chose to not live in the governor's mansion where he would literally not need any route of community. ⁓ commute to his office every day. So he made us all pay for a helipad. And then the Lieutenant Governor and the Secretary of State bought themselves escalates off the taxpayers dime as well. So fiscal accountability has been a huge issue in our state in this last year, just in the way that we have seen our taxpayer funds be abused by those who are in power in our state. And a lot of people are very frustrated about that across the board. Especially when you get out and you talk to people who are veterans and you talk to people who are members of unions. You know, people who are veterans and people who are in unions, they are not by any means like all one political party. In fact, I would say most of them tend to be individuals who describe themselves as people who have traditionally voted Republican. You know, they tend to be conservative voters, but they see this too. And they think to themselves, well, You know, it took me months, sometimes even years to access my veterans benefits. And I had to go through a very bureaucratic process to even get in touch with them and get any access to them, despite the fact that I'm entitled to them. So why are my elected representatives able to dip into the taxpayer pocket and just buy themselves these luxurious lifestyles out here with my money? Like I went out and I fought for their freedom and their liberty and they're in here treating my money like, ⁓ thanks for the new car dude. What? So I'm actually getting a lot of resonance from conservative voters out here who are just sick of that lack of accountability and transparency in the way that their taxpayer money is being collected and then the way that it's being spent out into the community because we are not seeing that money coming back into our communities. It's a lot like what you said earlier that rural Indiana is a lot like any place across the country. We all experience the same issues. And I think depending on whether you're in a metropolitan area or you're in a rural area, you can see those issues really magnified. Sometimes you see it more quickly magnified depending on where you live. But we do experience the exact same issues as they do in big city areas. And then we also don't get very much funding when it comes to what's coming down from the state level. So when we experience homelessness issues out here, we are not getting funding to establish. multiple homeless shelters around our counties or communities. There's maybe one or two and they tend to be nonprofits that were started by concerned citizens who sought out grant money to get them funded and going. So we really need to be getting a bigger share of the tax revenue that's going into the state of Indiana back out to our rural communities. ⁓ As much as our workers also need to be getting to keep a larger share of the profit there. that they're out here producing for their employers when it comes to big companies. What has the effect of the tariffs and the loss of the ACA subsidies and things such as that been on your district? So I know, I don't know a whole lot about how the tariffs have been impacting people. ⁓ I do know that soybeans, like we are actually one of the capitals in the country. think in fact, Indiana is the capital in the country for soybean output. And so when they put tariffs on soybean sales, that really harmed farmers in our communities. ⁓ That in corn, I actually saw a lot of signs pop up around the countryside this year saying, hey, you can come out to this farm. You can get 50 bag pound of corn for this amount. It seems like the farmers were trying to find new ways to get their products sold to make up for the difference that they were able to export for sure. It's like, I know it definitely is hitting them. I just haven't gotten to talk to anybody in an in-depth way to learn the exact details of how hard it's been impacting them. But the ACA subsidy cuts, that has been a huge issue. ⁓ I know people that I've spoken with personally that told me they've had to fully give up insurance coverage, health insurance coverage, because they're monthly premium was just too high with those ACA subsidies gone. I'm experiencing it as well. My monthly premium went up about $200 a month from what it was this time last year. And before that, it had only gone up by maybe 20, sometimes $60 a month. I mean, it was already a mess, a horrible system beforehand, but it has just been times 100 now. people are straight up dropping health insurance coverage, which is going to be catastrophic for rural areas across the country because people put off visiting a doctor to get care for their urgent medical needs when they don't have health insurance coverage until it's to a point that's absolutely catastrophic and they have to go to an emergency room. Then when they go to the local emergency room for treatment, they're not gonna be able to pay that bill. That bill just keeps running up for every person that's coming in, taking care of their health needs that way. And eventually that's what leads to our rural hospitals closing down is because they just can't make a profit anymore because too few people are actually covered by insurance in the community. And I just, hate to see it. We've seen some hospitals in neighboring communities outside of the district close in just the last couple of months here. ⁓ I'm pretty sure our nearest labor unit is actually about 30 to 45 minutes away now. You'd have to go to like a big city area. So it's really dangerous for human life and ⁓ maintaining it out here. So I'd like to take a moment and do a little future casting. ⁓ So November comes along and you've won. Congratulations. Thank you. you. ⁓ January. You hit January and you were sworn in as the representative for the 55th district. What are the first things that you want to do? The absolute first thing that I want to do, I have two bills that I want to pass in my first time in office. The first one is that small business equity minimum wage increase that I talked about where we raised the minimum wage to a living wage across the state of Indiana. and provide that subsidy for small and family-owned businesses to make sure they're able to keep up with the increase. honestly, programs like that make people less reliant on public service programs like Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP. So by doing that, we actually will be becoming more fiscally responsible as well. And then number two, I wanna see cannabis legalized across the state of Indiana because we are currently losing out on the sales tax revenue created by cannabis sales. to every single state that borders us. We are not touching a single state that doesn't have it legal in some capacity. In fact, three out of four of those states are legal fully recreationally. One of them is legal only in the medicinal way, but that means that Hoosiers are driving out a state to get that marijuana, get their cannabis products, and they're bringing it back here. And then I see it because I'm a criminal defense lawyer. So even though they bought it in a legal state where they had the legal right to do it, and even though I live in an area where I am literally 15 minutes away from the border of Ohio where you can legally buy marijuana, you come back across the border, you can be charged with a Class B misdemeanor. If you've been charged with possession of marijuana before, you can be charged with a Class A misdemeanor and face up to a year in jail as a result of buying something that's legal 15 minutes away. So. It's just sad on the loss of sales tax revenue that we're experiencing from not having moved forward with the rest of this country right now. And then it's just also sad in the way that we're seeing people who probably would not otherwise be incarcerated and burdening our criminal justice system, ending up in incarcerated States out here. ⁓ Obviously, legislatures, especially Indiana's legislature has as you've mentioned before, been doing a lot of interesting things throughout the years. If you get in there, what are some things that you would like to change about how the legislature is run? Like just change about it, if you could. Well, I know for one thing, I've heard this from people on both political party sides, that when you're a new legislator in office, You don't really get to do anything. You don't get on any committees and the party kind of just tells you what to vote yes and what to vote no on. I'm somebody who's dead set against that. I don't care who's telling it to me. I don't care if they're from my party, the other party. I am here to represent my people, not a party at the end of the day. And so I will be voting only in favor of things that will truly benefit my people out here in rural district 55. So that's something I want to see change. Beyond that talking procedurally. Here in the state of Indiana, we do not have what many other states have, which is ballot measures. We can't just put something on the ballot and put it to the voters if we come up with it and we think it's a big important issue for them all to decide on in a year. It actually has to go through a constitutional amendment process where it would have to be verified and passed by a majority in both the Senate and the state house for two years in a row before it can go on the ballot to the people. Yeah, it's sad process out here. is probably why nothing's getting thrown on there very often, Yeah, I think if we had ballot measures here in Indiana, cannabis would have been legalized years ago out here, back when Michigan legalized it, which I think was actually in about 2016 or 2017. It's been a bit now since Michigan first legalized. So that obviously needs changed. And I would want to make it a change to create the ballot measure process, not even just to put a specific issue on the ballot, but to make that constitutional amendment. So we can't keep running into this issue going forward in coming years. The people deserve to have a say on these big issues that are controversial to many people. And everybody will feel much better if they are decided on by the people at large. for everyone who has watched us up until this point and has heard everything that you've talked about and all that you want to do. What are one or two things that no matter what you would want them to come away with knowing about you and your campaign? Well, first things first, that I am a candidate who's truly for the people. You know, I am not here for anybody else. I cannot hit hard enough on that grassroots candidate status there. First off, because please donate to my campaign. I don't care if you live in Indiana or not. As a grassroots candidate, every small dollar donation means a lot to us. We're currently working on getting up billboards across the area because like I said before, with us being such a rural area, it is going to be a very ⁓ difficult process for us to reach the 10,000 voters that we need to reach in order for us to ⁓ win this November's election. So putting up billboards is a great way to get in contact with that full number of voters because they say it takes at least three times of hearing a candidate's name before people will actually care enough to go look them up and see what they're about. So we get billboards up across the region. That's going to be hidden a couple of those first few times and prompting them to learn more about us. I need people also to be volunteers with this campaign. I need as many boots on the ground as I can get because the more people I have to go knock doors with me. the more doors we're going to be able to reach on any given day when we go out canvassing in the community. And honestly, even if you're not in Indiana and you can't volunteer on the ground with this campaign, I would really strongly encourage you to figure out what's a candidate in your community that you can really get behind and go sign up to volunteer with their campaign. ⁓ People talk a lot about how this generation has become socially disengaged because we're online so much. And I'm not even saying this because I want people to come volunteer with my campaign. Canvassing is honestly really fun. Like it's a great way to hang out with people. You spend like 90 % of the time just hanging out with the person who's your door knocking partner. You can chat it up. You can get some regular human engagement going on. And it also, it's really good at practicing how to talk to people you might not fully agree with because at the end of the day, we do all live in this state together. We all live in this country together. We have to know how to talk to each other about the things that are really difficult for us to truly move forward and build that better world that we all want to live in, where there's way less war and way less human rights abuses going on around us. Yeah. So for anyone that does want to volunteer or does want to potentially ⁓ donate or just learn more about you, where can they find you? We do have a website. You can go online and you can learn more about us at votevictoriamarts.org. And then I'm also on all social media platforms. You can find us on Instagram and TikTok at Martz number four, Indiana. And then on Facebook, I'm there under Victoria Martz for district 55. Victoria, thank you so much for spending some time with us and allowing us to get to know you and what you hope to do for your district. Thank you and thank you so much for this opportunity and having me on all the way from North Carolina. I know, know. Internet's an amazing thing, huh? It is. And for everyone that has listened this far, thank you so much. ⁓ Please like, subscribe, hit all those buttons down below. It helps to make it possible for me to keep doing what I'm doing, which is talking to amazing people like this that want to help change this country, one state, one state seat, one whatever they're running for at a time. ⁓ So please like share subscribe all of that stuff ⁓ for people like Victoria who are grassroots things like Visibility and name recognition Don't come as easy as if someone who has got a million dollars that can just throw down and put ads everywhere So watching these videos and sharing them with people increases the chance that people in her district can see her face again that don't ⁓ need a billboard. So please watch this and share it, even if you're not in her state, even if you're not in her district. And for everyone that's new to this podcast, just so you know, Breaking the Meta is about having hard conversations, fighting to break the status quo, and the idea that all people, no matter your race, religion, gender, or identity, get rights, respect, dignity, and safety. Victoria, again, thank you for being here, and for everyone else, we'll see you next time on Breaking the Meta. Bye, guys.