Unfiltered: The Lawyer Who Showed Up When No One Else Would

Why Running in Every District Matters

Mar 12, 2026

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This is Unfiltered Campaign Marketing for a New Generation — we demystify the how: winning in every district, defining real victory, building media that moves people (not algorithms), and developing leaders who ignite movements. Our mission? Floodlight the path forward. Justice doesn’t win elections, people do. We help you win real power, votes, volunteers, and small-dollar fuel on your terms, in your community.

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“I feel like the voices of rural Indiana, rural areas across the country have been overlooked for a long time and it’s led to a lot of people feeling unheard and unrepresented by the current people in control.”

Victoria Martz didn’t wait for permission to run. She didn’t wait for the state party to tell her House District 55 was “winnable.” She didn’t wait for anyone to say her rural southeastern Indiana district deserved better than 20% Democratic vote share and a representative who hasn’t faced opposition in nearly a decade.

She just showed up.

“I am a criminal defense lawyer and a mom down here in southeastern Indiana,” Victoria told me when we sat down for this conversation. “I actually grew up in this area. I was homeschooled, grew up on a small family farm out in Milan, Indiana... I like to use my voice to speak up for people and make sure that I’m getting people the best outcome I possibly can on any given criminal matter. And I really want to do that for the people of my district.”

That’s the mission driving her campaign: the same commitment she brings to every client in her criminal defense practice, now extended to every voter in HD-55.

The Moment That Sparked a Campaign

Victoria’s decision to run wasn’t born from ambition—it was born from frustration. When she moved back to Batesville and went to vote in her first election since returning home, she pulled a Democratic ticket and was told there wouldn’t be anyone to vote for.

“When I went to vote in my first election since moving back out here to Batesville, Indiana, I pulled that Democratic ticket... And they’re like, ‘Well, you’re not going to have anybody to vote for.’ And so then I went and I put it in the machine and no joke, there was no Democratic candidate on the ballot.”

That moment captures exactly what we’ve been documenting in this Substack: Indiana isn’t a red state—it’s a rigged state. When 30-32 seats go uncontested year after year, when voters show up and find no choice on their ballot, that’s not democracy. That’s abandonment.

This year Indiana is working hard to change that and it is because of people like Victoria Martz!!!!

“We deserve to have options when it comes to our representation... The more close you are to a everyday living, working person’s experience, the better you’re going to be able to represent that same class of people.”

Why Running in Every District Matters

I’ve written extensively about why we must run candidates in every seat of the bus—you cannot flip top-of-ticket races without down-ballot infrastructure. Victoria is proving this on the ground in one of Indiana’s deepest red districts.

According to our data, HD-55 carries an R+60 margin, 24,820 Republican votes to 6,016 Democratic votes in 2024. The state party ranked it at the very bottom of winnability. Victoria was told this directly: “They scrolled all the way to the very last position on the list. And that was where House District 55 lay.”

But here’s what that ranking ignores: when you stop messaging, when you stop talking to voters, that’s on the democratic party leadership. As I told Victoria during our conversation, it’s like a friendship—if you stop reaching out, you lose the connection. Voters in HD-55 haven’t heard from Democrats in years. That’s not their fault. That’s ours.

The State’s Disinvestment—and What It Costs

Victoria and I discussed how Indiana has systematically disinvested in districts like hers. The data backs this up:

38% of Indiana households live below the ALICE threshold—working, often multiple jobs, and still can’t afford housing, childcare, healthcare, or transportation
Indiana ranks 50th in voter turnout, reflecting a deep crisis in political engagement
Wages in Indiana have only risen 14% compared to the national average of 32%
60,000 Hoosiers lost their health care in January because of the changes to the ACA.

When the state doesn’t invest in a district, communities feel it. Public schools close. Class sizes balloon from 5 students to 500. Property taxes rise while services shrink. Victoria described watching Rushville face school system shutdown due to deficits—a direct result of the GOP’s budget bill defunding of public education.

“We have defunded public schools so much over the last several decades, so many of those schools have closed and they’ve been consolidated into bigger and bigger school systems,” she said. “It’s just decreasing the quality of education that we’re able to give our kids.”

Redefining What Winning Looks Like

Here’s the argument I’ve been making across this Substack, and Victoria is living it: investing in a candidate and getting the messaging right can move a red district to competitive.

HD-55 has Democratic growth pockets—manufacturing towns with union culture, healthcare workers, younger workforce in Batesville and Greensburg. When Democrats run economically focused campaigns, these towns can move from 20% to 35-40% Democratic. That’s how rural districts eventually become competitive.

⚠️ One Important Insight

HD-55 actually has a lot of non-voters.

If turnout increased among:

voters under 40
renters
working-class voters

you could realistically add 5,000–7,000 votes without persuasion.

Victoria’s campaign is already doing the work: 15-20 volunteers on communications, social media, and messaging. Door-knocking. Phone banking. Listening to what voters actually care about—public school funding, property taxes, getting corporate money out of politics.

And she’s clear about what victory means:

“Even if we don’t win it, what I would take as a huge win is if we break that margin of the voting split in this area to such a difference that we start to be seen as a competitive house race.”

That’s redefining winning. That’s building power. That’s how we unrig a rigged state.

Victoria Martz is already working and fighting for the people of HD-55. She’s not waiting for Old Politics to anoint her. She’s not asking for permission. She’s building a campaign on listening, on values, on showing up where voters are—physically and online.

This is what running candidates in every seat of the bus looks like in action. No gatekeepers. No jargon. No permission slips. Victoria is landing her messaging, connecting with voters on issues that matter to them and traveling the district to let voters know they have a choice on the ballot.

Subscribe. Learn. Win. The future isn’t waiting. It’s being built, block by block, by the people who refuse to ask for permission.

Let’s Lift Victoria Up. She’s working to rebuild Democratic infrastructure in a district that’s been abandoned for too long and she needs our support. In order to reach voters, she needs accurate data. The fact that HD-55 has seen candidates run uncontested for multiple election cycles means the current voter file is beyond poor. Victoria needs TargetSmart data—for $150 a month, she can access RunningMate, a cutting-edge data visualization tool that helps her zone in on young voters, identify flippable precincts, and make better-informed decisions on how to increase voter turnout.

Here’s the ask: Can we get 11 people to donate $150 to help Victoria? Or can we get one person to commit $150/month on a recurring pattern, or two people to commit $75/month for the next 9 months? This isn’t just about one campaign—it’s about proving that when we invest in candidates running in every district, we rebuild power from the ground up. Victoria’s campaign is the kind of grassroots movement building that will make change possible.

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