President Biden released a statement on the death of Congresswoman Jackie Walorski (R-IN) on Wednesday evening.
Walorski was killed on Wednesday afternoon while driving on state Route 19 in South Bend, Indiana, her hometown. Emma Thomson, Walorski’s 28-year-old communications director and Zachery Potts, her 27-year-old district office director, were traveling with her when they were struck in a head-on collision by a car heading the opposite direction. All three were killed as was the other driver.
Biden issued the statement online later in the day.
“Jill and I are shocked and saddened by the death of Congresswoman Jackie Walorski of Indiana along with two members of her staff in a car accident today in Indiana,” Biden wrote. “Born in her beloved South Bend as the daughter of a meat-cutter and firefighter, she spent a lifetime serving the community that she grew up in — as a journalist, a nonprofit director, a state legislator, and eventually as a Member of Congress for the past nine and half years.”
“We may have represented different parties and disagreed on many issues, but she was respected by members of both parties for her work on the House Ways and Means Committee on which she served,” the president continued.
“She also served as co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus, and 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’s statement read. Walorski was influential in working alongside the administration to plan the first White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health held in 50 years.
“We send our deepest condolences to her husband, Dean, to the families of her staff members, Zachery Potts and Emma Thomson, who lost their lives in public service, and to the people of Indiana’s Second District who lost a representative who was one of their own,” Biden closed.
The White House announced that flags on federal properties would be flown at half-mast after Walorski’s passing.
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