Congresswoman Jackie Walorski had been on a tour to several places in Northern Indiana in the days before her death and one of those places was Bella Vita in Knox on Tuesday, August 2.
Bella Vita Co-Founder Becky Bailey, who has been friends with Walorski since Walorski started campaigning in 2010, said she stopped by the facility last week to see how things were going and to talk about the abortion bill which was a topic of the Indiana General Assembly’s recent Special Session.
“When she was here on Tuesday, a lot of it was about what’s going on in the State of Indiana for the abortion bill SB1,” stated Bailey. “She was just through the roof for some of the things that they were leaving in some of the amendments. So, we talked a lot about that because we’re both very passionate about that. We also talked about making adoption more affordable and that was something that she was passionate about too, trying to make it easier for people to adopt with less red tape and lower cost.”
The pair also discussed pregnancy center funding and the strings attached with that funding.
“She actually asked me to come to D.C. because she was on the Ways and Means Committee and that was a huge appointment that she had. She wanted me to come and testify before Congress of how faith-based pregnancy centers need to have funds too.”
Bailey said she came to know Walorski through campaigning and through her faith and they held that connection all this time. Bailey even made several trips to Washington, D.C. “I would go back and forth to Washington, D.C. because we were lobbying for sexual risk avoidance money and so I would go and visit Jackie. I’d visit whatever senators and whoever was in office then. Jackie was so much fun when we were out there. She literally at one point snuck my daughter and I into the Capital after hours because they were going late with their voting and she brought us into the room where they used to swear in the presidents.”
Bailey also introduced Josh Felty as an intern to Walorski’s office. She also introduced Walorski to Chris Lee who worked for her full time from 2015 to 2019.
Most of all, Bailey said Walorski put her constituents in Indiana first.
“She put us first. She really did care.”
Jackie Walorski’s funeral is set for Thursday, August 11 at 11 a.m. ET at Granger Community Church in Mishawaka.
