Rudy Yakym gets GOP nod to replace late US Rep. Walorski
MISHAWAKA, Ind. (AP) — Indiana Republicans on Saturday picked Rudy Yakym to replace U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski on the November ballot, after Yakym won the endorsement of the late Indiana congresswoman's husband.
Yakym will be a heavy favorite in the November election against Democrat Paul Steury, a high school science teacher from Goshen, and Libertarian William Henry. He will run both to complete Walorski’s term that ends this year and for a full two-year term. Both elections will be on the November ballot.
Yakym received the most votes Saturday from Republican precinct committee members for their party’s nomination in northern Indiana’s solidly GOP 2nd Congressional District. He won the general election ballot vacancy through the balloting process and the special election ballot vacancy via acclamation, Indiana Republican Party spokesman Luke Thomas said in an email.
Yakym, 38, is an executive with Elkhart distribution company Kem Krest and was a longtime political ally of Walorski, including working as finance director for her first winning congressional campaign in 2012.
He overcame a field of a dozen candidates, including derailing a political comeback bid by former Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill, whose 2020 reelection bid failed after he faced allegations that he drunkenly groped four women during a party.
Walorski’s husband, Dean Swihart, endorsed Yakym this past week for the Republican nomination, calling him “a political outsider who has what it takes to stand up to the Pelosi-Biden agenda.”
About 500 Republican activists were eligible to vote in the caucus Saturday.
Democrats now hold a narrow 220-210 majority in the U.S. House, with Walorski’s death giving it five vacancies.
Walorski, 58, was a passenger in an SUV with two members of her congressional...