Rep. Jackie Walorski of Indiana is killed in car crash
Rep. Jackie Walorski, an Indiana Republican who served in Congress for almost a decade, proving a stout defender of jobs in her home state, died along with two of her staffers in a head-on auto collision in northern Indiana on Wednesday afternoon. She was 58.
The crash, which killed four and left no survivors, took place about 12:32 p.m. Eastern time on State Road 19 near Nappanee, Ind., said the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office.
Walorski, the ranking member of the House Ethics Committee, had represented a northern Indiana District since 2013. The fast-talking daughter of a firefighter, she worked as a TV news reporter and then as a state lawmaker before rising to Congress.
Walorski’s office confirmed her death in a statement published to her Twitter account, noting that the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office had informed her husband, Dean Swihart, of the tragedy.
“She has returned home to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,” said the statement. “Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers.”
Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) was one of four people killed. (Alex Wong/)
The crash occurred when a northbound auto carrying only a driver drifted from its lane and collided with the southbound SUV carrying Walorski, according to the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office.
The driver of the northbound car, Edith Schmucker, 56, of Nappanee, was pronounced dead at the scene, the sheriff’s office said.
Walorski’s district director, Zachery Potts, 27, of Mishawaka, Ind., and her communications director, Emma Thomson, 28, of Washington, D.C., were traveling in the SUV and also died, according to the sheriff’s office.
“My heart is heavy,” tweeted Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), adding that he was struggling to find words. “But all I can say is prayers for her family. She was a good and honorable public servant.”
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said on Twitter that Congress had “lost one of our best.”
“She was dedicated and determined, and the kindest of colleagues — with the heart to match,” Issa tweeted.
Walorski, the daughter of Raymond Walorski and the former Martha Martin, was born in the college town of South Bend, Ind., on Aug. 17, 1963.
She attended Riley High School in South Bend and later graduated from Taylor University in Indiana with a degree in communications and public administration. In the late 1980s, she worked as a reporter at WSBT-TV, a South Bend-area station.
In 1995, she married Swihart, a schoolteacher. At the turn of the century, she launched a medical supply foundation and spent four years in Romania as a Christian missionary. She said the years left a “profound” mark on her.
“One of the first things a ‘missionary’ would tell you is that they’ve learned more from a country than they’ve ever done for that nation,” she once told Agri-Pulse, a food policy news outlet. “I wouldn’t be in the U.S. Congress today if my husband and I had not lived in Romania.”
Her time in Eastern Europe shaped her views of national security and global agriculture, she said. Walorski joined Indiana’s Legislature in 2004, and arrived on Capitol Hill less than a decade later.
Presenting herself as an avatar for hardworking Hoosiers, she was a reliable conservative vote in the House. As a candidate, she highlighted her work to support veterans, to fight hunger and to further gun rights and abortion restrictions.
Though she pitched herself as an opponent of partisan politics, she propped up efforts to reject the results of the 2020 election lost by former President Donald Trump. In April, Trump offered her a “Complete and Total” endorsement.
Still, Walorski bucked Trump during his presidency when she thought his policies would shortchange her constituents. In 2018, she argued on CNBC and in the halls of Congress that Trump’s tariffs could crush jobs in her district.
Her death met deep sadness on both sides of the aisle, from coast to coast, and hit particularly hard in Indiana.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a Democrat and former mayor of South Bend, said on Twitter that he was “shocked and saddened” by Walorski’s death.
“Though we came from very different places politically,” he tweeted, “she was always prepared to work together where there was common ground, always decent and straightforward, and she cared deeply about her work and her constituents.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence, the one-time governor of Indiana, tweeted that he was heartbroken, describing Walorski as a “truly inspiring Indiana leader” who served with “integrity and principle.”
And Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) ordered flags at the U.S. Capitol to fly at half-staff, her office said.
In a statement, the speaker said Walorski had “lived a life of service: whether caring for impoverished children in Romania, representing her community in the Indiana Statehouse or serving nearly a decade in the House.”
“She passionately brought the voices of her north Indiana constituents to the Congress,” Pelosi added, “and she was admired by colleagues on both sides of the aisle for her personal kindness.”
