Republican and Democratic officials will choose nominees to complete the final weeks of the late Rep. Jackie Walorski’s House term. The Indiana Republican was killed on Wednesday in a car crash in her district.
Emma Thomson, 28, Walorski’s communications director, and Zachery Potts, her 27-year-old district office director, were traveling with Walorski and also died in the accident on state Route 19. Walorski, 58, was first elected to the House in 2012, after five years as a state representative.
BIDEN ‘SHOCKED AND SADDENED’ BY DEATH OF GOP REP. JACKIE WALORSKI
A special election to complete Walorski’s unexpired House term will be held because the vacancy occurred more than 74 days before the general election, according to Indiana election law. That election almost certainly will coincide with the regularly scheduled Nov. 8 election for a full term, for the 118th Congress, which starts on Jan. 3, 2023. The truncated term will be a matter of weeks, with Walorski’s successor likely to be sworn in during a post-Election Day lame-duck session of Congress.
Rather than party primaries, Republican and Democratic leaders in the 2nd Congressional District will select nominees to replace Walorski on the ballot. The vote will come as the entire House is up for grabs, with Republicans needing to net only five seats in the 435-member chamber to claim a majority for the first time in four years.
The 2nd Congressional District covers north central Indiana and includes South Bend and Elkhart. The district lines will expire at the end of this Congress. Though the redistricting process in Indiana, controlled entirely by state Republicans, largely left the 2nd Congressional District’s contours intact. The current 2nd Congressional District, as with the incoming version, is strongly Republican.
The district is among five House seats now vacant, with Democrats holding a narrow 220-210 majority. Several special elections are scheduled for later in August to fill open seats in Minnesota and New York.
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Walorski’s committee assignments included being the top Republican on the House Ethics Committee. Her counterpart on the evenly divided panel, House Ethics Committee Chairman Ted Deutch (D-FL), is set to resign from the House by Oct. 1 to become CEO of the American Jewish Committee, creating another vacancy.
Walorski is the sixth House member of this Congress to die in office. Five were sitting member, including Walorski. And Rep.-elect Luke Letlow (R-LA), elected in 2020, died of COVID-19 complications days before he was set to assume office for his first term.
