Jackie Walorski

Jacqueline Renae Walorski (, August 17, 1963 – August 3, 2022) was an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Indiana's 2nd congressional district from 2013 until her death in 2022. She was a member of the Republican Party. Walorski served in the Indiana House of Representatives, representing Indiana's 21st district, from 2005 to 2010. In 2010, she won the Republican nomination for Indiana's 2nd congressional district, but narrowly lost the general election to Democratic incumbent Joe Donnelly. Walorski won the seat in 2012 after Donnelly vacated it to run for the U.S. Senate, and was reelected four times.

Early life and education

Born in South Bend, Indiana, on August 17, 1963, Walorski grew up with her two older brothers in the city's Gilmer Park neighborhood. Her mother, Martha C. (née Martin), worked as a meat cutter at a local grocery store, and her father, Raymond B. Walorski, worked as a firefighter and owned an appliance store. She had Polish and German ancestry. As a child, she attended Hay Elementary School and graduated from Riley High School in 1981. She then attended Liberty Baptist College from 1981 to 1983, and graduated from Taylor University, receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in communications and public administration in 1985.

Early career

Walorski began her career as a television reporter for WSBT-TV, a CBS affiliate in South Bend, from 1985 to 1989, and was the executive director of the St. Joseph County Humane Society from 1989 to 1991. In 1991, she was appointed the director of institutional advancement at Ancilla College, a position she held until she was appointed the director of membership at the St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce in 1996. She later worked as the director of annual giving at Indiana University South Bend from 1997 to 1999.

Walorski moved to Romania in 2000 and founded Impact International, a foundation to provide medical supplies and attention to impoverished children. She did Christian missionary work in Romania before returning to the U.S. in 2004.

Indiana House of Representatives

Elections

In 2004, Walorski ran for a seat in the Indiana House of Representatives after incumbent Republican State Representative Richard W. Mangus decided to retire. She ran in Indiana's 2nd District, which included the suburban area between South Bend and Elkhart. Walorski defeated Democrat Carl H. Kaser, 64%–36%. In 2006, she won a second term with 53% of the vote. In 2008, she won a third term unopposed.

Tenure

During her tenure in the Indiana House, Walorski sponsored Indiana's Voter ID law, requiring voters to present government-issued identification during in-person voting. The voter ID law led to many lawsuits and was brought before the Supreme Court, where it was upheld in ''Crawford v. Marion County Election Board'', and has been cited as helping the expansion of voter ID laws in other states.

Walorski was criticized for missing a committee vote and the opportunity for stopping the daylight saving time (DST) bill from passing out of committee, even though that bill died on the House floor. After a different bill passed introducing DST, she authored and introduced a bill to rescind DST, a measure that ended up dying.

Walorski authored legislation combating identity theft, including in 2006 when she sponsored a bill requiring companies to notify customers who are Indiana residents of any security breaches that could cause identity theft, identity deception, or fraud, making it a Class C felony and imposing a $50,000 fine on anyone who has the identities of over 100 persons. "Identity theft is the most rapidly growing crime in the United States. We need to find a solution to this problem before it gets any bigger in Indiana", she said.

Walorski became active in the caucus and was appointed Assistant Floor Leader. She served on the Family, Children, & Human Affairs and the Public Policy committees.

U.S. House of Representatives

In 2009, Walorski announced her candidacy to challenge incumbent Democratic U.S. Representative Joe Donnelly in , and she won the 2010 Republican primary, with 61% of the votes, defeating Martin Dolan, Jack Jordan, and Tony Zirkle. She lost 48%–47% in the general election.

Within months of the general election, Walorski announced her plan to contest the seat again in 2012. During the Indiana legislature's 2011–2013 legislative session, the predominantly Republican Indiana House and Senate redrew Indiana's congressional districts. After redistricting, the newly drawn 2nd district included all of Elkhart County, Walorski's home county, and the demographics of the new district included more registered Republican voters. Had the district existed with these lines in 2008, Barack Obama would have won it by just 0.3 percentage points, 49.6% to John McCain's 49.3%.Presidential results by congressional district
under district lines used in 2012 from Daily Kos In contrast, he won the old 2nd with 54% of the vote.

Donnelly decided not to seek reelection, opting instead to run for the U.S. Senate. Walorski won the 2012 primary election with 73% of the vote, winning all ten counties in the 2nd District. In the general election, she faced Libertarian nominee Joe Ruiz of Mishawaka and Democratic nominee Brendan Mullen of Granger, an Iraq War veteran. Walorski defeated Mullen 49%–48%, likely helped by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney carrying her district with 56% of the vote. At the same time, Donnelly was elected to the Senate.

In 2014, while serving on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Walorski was a leading voice pushing for the resignation of Eric Shinseki as Secretary of Veterans Affairs due to the Veterans Health Administration scandal of 2014.

Walorski voted against the second impeachment of Donald Trump and voted to object to the certification of the 2020 United States presidential election.

In 2019, Walorski was named the ranking member on the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Worker and Family Support. In 2020, she was appointed to serve on the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. In 2021, she became the ranking member on the House Ethics Committee.

Walorski won the uncontested 2022 Republican primary for the 2nd district.

Caucus memberships

* Veterinary Medicine Caucus
* U.S.-Japan Caucus
* Republican Study Committee

Political positions

Defense

On May 25, 2018, Walorski introduced legislation to double the death gratuity the federal government pays to the families of service members killed on active duty. The legislation would have increased the death gratuity from $100,000 to $200,000. Under the bill, the government would have paid at least 60% of the benefit to the surviving spouse, and service members could have chosen how to disburse the remaining 40%. The bill also would have capped Congress members' death benefits at $74,000. The cap would have resulted in a payment of about $100,000 less than would be paid under the current system.

Health care

Walorski voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Economy

Walorski advocated privatizing Social Security. In March 2010, she said, "I think the one thing we have to do is the thing that Bush actually tried to do a couple years ago, which is privatize Social Security and allow people to invest in their own retirement."

Walorski voted for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

In 2018, Walorski said she opposed the Trump tariffs on goods imported from U.S. allies. She said that such duties threaten U.S. businesses and workers. These include a 25% tariff on steel and a 10% tariff on aluminum. Walorski also asked that the system for granting exclusions for certain products be accelerated.

Abortion

In 2013, Walorski expressed support for a ban on late-term abortions.

In 2015, Walorski raised objections to the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, a bill banning late termination of pregnancy, an abortion procedure given beyond 20 weeks into a pregnancy. She had supported the 2013 version, but removed her name from the 2015 House bill in mid-January. The 2015 bill had an exemption for those seeking an abortion due to rape, but required that the person seeking the exemption report the rape to the police past 20 weeks. House Republicans canceled a planned vote shortly afterward due to opposition from Walorski and Representative Renee Ellmers, and other Republicans expressing concerns about the bill. A modified version of the bill was proposed in 2015, with modifications to remove the requirement to report a rape to the police. This version instead allowed abortions past 20 weeks in cases of rape, with the requirement that those pregnant due to rape would need to seek medical care or counseling before getting an abortion. Walorski voted for this version of the House bill in May. Walorski would also go on to vote for the 2017 version of the bill.

In October 2017, Walorski asked the Indiana State Department of Health to deny an application to open an abortion clinic in South Bend, saying the clinic would undermine efforts to reduce the number of abortions in the area.

Interest group ratings

Walorski was given a "D" rating in 2016 from marijuana legalization advocacy group NORML for her voting history regarding cannabis-related causes.

Walorski had a 63% rating from Heritage Action for America based on her conservative voting record.

Immigration

Walorski supported Trump's 2017 executive order to impose a temporary ban on entry to the U.S. for citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, saying she believed it would "allow our national security officials to examine the vetting process and strengthen safeguards to prevent terrorists from entering our homeland."

''Texas v. Pennsylvania''

In December 2020, Walorski was one of 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives to sign an amicus brief in support of ''Texas v. Pennsylvania'', a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on the basis that Texas lacked standing under Article III of the Constitution to challenge the results of an election held by another state.

Personal life

In 1995, Walorski married Dean Swihart, a schoolteacher in Mishawaka. She resided in Jamestown, an unincorporated suburban community west of Elkhart, and was a member of South Gate Church, an Assemblies of God megachurch in South Bend.

Death

On August 3, 2022, four people, including Walorski, were killed in a head-on collision between two cars near Nappanee, Indiana. Walorski was returning from a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Claypool, Indiana. The collision occurred on State Road 19 near the intersection with State Road 119 between Nappanee and Wakarusa. The driver of the other vehicle, a Ford Contour, and the two other people in Walorski's vehicle, a Toyota RAV4, also died.

It was initially reported that a northbound vehicle on State Road 19 veered left and collided head-on with Walorski's vehicle, which was southbound, but the police later retracted that statement, and said that Walorski's northbound car, driven by Zachery Potts, had crossed the center line for unknown reasons. The investigation concluded the following month, with the Elkhart County Sheriff's Office finding that Potts was at fault for the crash, with evidence showing he was likely attempting to overtake a flatbed truck.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered the flags around the U.S. Capitol Building to be flown at half-staff on the day of death and the day after in her honor. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, whose hometown of South Bend is in Walorski's district, posted condolences on Twitter, saying that "she was always prepared to work together where there was common ground". Former President Donald Trump eulogized her on his Truth Social platform, and President Joe Biden issued a statement saying that she was "respected by members of both parties" and offering condolences to the victims' families. On August 10, 2022, the Indiana congressional delegation introduced a resolution to name the Department of Veteran Affairs Clinic in Mishawaka the Jackie Walorski VA Clinic. The resolution, H.R. 8656, was signed into law September 30.

Walorski's funeral was held on August 11 at Granger Community Church in Granger, Indiana, and she was buried at Southlawn Cemetery in South Bend.

Republican Rudy Yakym was chosen as Walorski's successor in a special election in November 2022.

Honors

Walorski was awarded the following foreign honor:
* Commander of the Order of the Star of Romania (June 8, 2017)

Electoral history

See also

* Women in the United States House of Representatives
* List of United States Congress members who died in office (2000–)

Notes

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Walorski, Jackie
1963 births
2022 deaths
20th-century American journalists
21st-century American politicians
21st-century American women politicians
American expatriates in Romania
American Pentecostal missionaries
American people of German descent
American politicians of Polish descent
American television reporters and correspondents
Burials in Indiana
Commanders of the Order of the Star of Romania
Female Christian missionaries
Female members of the United States House of Representatives
Republican Party members of the Indiana House of Representatives
People from Elkhart County, Indiana
Politicians from South Bend, Indiana
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Indiana
Road incident deaths in Indiana
Taylor University alumni
Women state legislators in Indiana