Indiana congresswoman Jackie Walorski dies in car crash
The US congresswoman Jackie Walorski and two members of her staff were killed in a head-on vehicle collision in Indiana on Wednesday, her office and local police said.
Walorski, a Republican who represented Indiana’s second congressional district in the US House of Representatives, was traveling in a vehicle with the two others when another car veered into their lane, the Elkhart county sheriff’s office said.
Walorski, 58, died as a result of her injuries, the sheriff’s office said. Walorski’s communications director, Emma Thomson, 27, and Zachery Potts, 28, a district director for the lawmaker, were also killed, it added.
The driver of the other vehicle, 56year-old Edith Schmucker, was pronounced dead at the scene, it said.
Confirming her death in a statement shared on Twitter by the House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, Walorski’s office said: “Dean Swihart, Jackie’s husband, was just informed by the Elkhart county sheriff’s office that Jackie was killed in a car accident this afternoon.”
It added: “Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers. We will have no further comment at this time.”
“She has returned home to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers,” Walorski’s chief of staff Tim Cummings said in a statement.
Cummings confirmed that Potts and Thomson were members of Walorski’s congressional staff.
Walorski was a lifelong resident of Indiana, according to her official biography. She served on the House ways and means committee and as the top Republican on the subcommittee on worker and family support.
Walorski was seeking reelection this year to a sixth term in the solidly Republican district. She was active on agriculture and food policy in Congress, often working across the aisle on those issues. A co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus, she introduced legislation with Democrats to bring back a Nixon-era White House event on food insecurity.
Joe Biden pointed to that work in a statement crediting Walorski for years of public service.
“We may have represented different parties and disagreed on many issues, but she was respected by members of both parties for her work,” Biden said. “My team and I appreciated her partnership as we plan for a historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health this fall that will be marked by her deep care for the needs of rural America.”
Indiana Republican and US senator Todd Young said he was devastated by Walorski‘s death.
“Jackie loved Hoosiers and devoted her life to fighting for them,” Young said in a statement. “I’ll never forget her spirit, her positive attitude and most importantly her friendship. All of Indiana mourns her passing, along with the tragic deaths of her staff Emma Thomson and Zach Potts.”
The House Republican minority leader Kevin McCarthy called Walorski a “no-nonsense, straight shooter”.
The House speaker Nancy Pelosi said Walorski “lived a life of service”.
“She passionately brought the voices of her north Indiana constituents to the Congress and she was admired by colleagues on both sides of the aisle for her personal kindness,” Pelosi said in a statement.
Pelosi ordered the flags at the US Capitol to be flown at half-staff in Walorski‘s honor.