Indiana Rep. Jackie Walorski, 3 others killed in car crash, authorities say
Indiana Rep. Jackie Walorski and three others were killed Wednesday afternoon in a car crash in her district, according to authorities.
Walorski, 58, was traveling southbound on SR 19 near Nappanee, Indiana, in an SUV with two other people when their vehicle crossed the dividing line and slammed into a car head-on traveling northbound, the Elkhart County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. All three people in the SUV were killed.
Sheriff's officials identified the victims as Walorski; Zachery Potts, 27; and Emma Thomson, 28.
The driver of the other vehicle, 56-year-old Edith Schmucker, was also killed in the crash, the officials said.
Police confirmed that everyone involved in the crash had seat belts on.
Thomson was Walorski's communications director and Potts was previously Walorski's campaign manager and was currently a district director in Indiana for the House of Representatives.
GOP Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Twitter shared a statement -- "with a heavy heart" -- that he said was from Walorski's office.
"Jackie was killed in a car accident this afternoon. She has returned home to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Chris. Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers. We will have no further comment at this time," the statement read.
According to the statement, Walorski's husband was notified of her death by the Elkhart County Sheriff's Office in Indiana.
A former state lawmaker, Walorski, a Republican, had represented Indiana's 2nd Congressional District since 2013.
According to her House biography, she and her husband "previously spent four years as missionaries in Romania, where they started and ran a foundation to provide food and medical supplies to impoverished children there. Jackie also worked as a television news reporter in South Bend and as a development director for colleges and universities in Indiana."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered flags to half-staff at the Capitol in the wake of the crash, a spokesman for her wrote on Twitter.
Walorski's Republican colleague Adam Kinzinger, of Illinois, mourned her death in a brief tweet Wednesday.
"My heart is heavy, and i don’t have the words. But all I can say is prayers for her family," he wrote. "She was a good and honorable public servant."
In a statement on Wednesday night, President Joe Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden were "shocked and saddened by" Walorski's death.
"We may have represented different parties and disagreed on many issues, but she was respected by members of both parties .... 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," Biden said.
The Elkhart County Coroner’s Office and the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office continue to investigate the crash.
ABC News' Davone Morales, Cheryl Gendron and Teddy Grant contributed to this report.
