Jackie Walorski: A life that touched so many
She was on the road to another decisive election win and another term as the Congresswoman representing Indiana's 2nd District. Then, on Aug. 3, 2022, while traveling on a road in the heart of the district she represented, Jackie Walorski lost her life and a promising political career. She died in a two-vehicle head-on crash in Elkhart County that also claimed the lives of her communication director, Emma Thomson, and Zachery Potts, her district director. The driver of the other vehicle, Edith Schmucker of Nappanee, also died in the collision.
Walorski had become a star in the republican party. She was a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, a group that writes tax codes and has the responsibility of raising the money needed to fund the Federal Government. It's a prestigious assignment and she was moving up in what many people consider the most powerful committee in the House.
A self-described "pit bull" when she was an Indiana state representative from 2005 to 2010, Walorski established a reputation as a consistent conservative voice, who never wavered on her pro-life position as many politicians do these days. Agree or disagree, the people with whom she worked and the people she represented admired her conviction.
"When she first began her political career, I think she came across as a little abrasive," said Jack Colwell, political columnist for the South Bend Tribune. " She overcame that, realizing she needed to avoid some of the harsh rhetoric she used early in her career. She realized if she moderated her tone, she would become more acceptable to more people, and she was right."
Colwell is one of the most respected political writers in Michiana. He worked 38 years as a full-time reporter for the South Bend Tribune, beginning in 1964, and he covered Walorksi's political career from the very beginning.
"I think Jackie would have been easily re-elected for the rest of her career and I think she would have continued to rise in the republican party. She represented the views of the people in her district very well. She had opportunities to run for Senate, but she didn't take them. I think she would have finished her career as a representative in the House."
Colwell says Walorski's decision to not certify the election results from the 2020 election was based on the viewpoint of many voters in her district. It wasn't the most popular move in St. Joseph County, but Colwell believes it was a vote that most voters in the district at that time believed was right.
"She voted the way her constituents wanted her to vote."
Walorski was born and raised in South Bend, graduating from Riley High School in 1991. She went to college at Liberty Baptist for a couple years, but then transferred to Taylor University where she graduated with a degree in communications and public administration in 1985.
That education and her first job as a local news reporter in South Bend helped her understand the media, developing good relationships with people like Colwell and others in the news business. It certainly doesn't hurt politicians to have a good understanding of the media and to build relationships with those who work in it.
After working four years as a journalist, she took a job as the executive director of the St. Joseph County Humane Society from 1989 to 1991. She also worked as the director of institutional advancement at Ancilla College in Indiana, the director of membership at the St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce, and the director of annual giving at Indiana University South Bend (IUSB)
In 2000 Walorski and her husband Dean Swihart moved to Romania where they started an organization called Impact International. It provided medical supplies and care for orphaned children. She also did Christian missionary work there before she came back to Indiana and started her political career, first getting elected as a state representative in 2005.
"One year later and the magnitude of her absence is still felt daily. Congresswoman Jackie Walorski was a force to reckon with and a fearless fighter for her Hoosier neighbors in northern Indiana."
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb