Jackie Walorski says her passion to fight for Hoosiers is what keeps her going.

“I have seen from the inside the kind of difference one legislature can make standing up and fighting for one person,” she said. “I have seen laws change for one person. I have seen the ability to go in and to fight for Hoosiers at every level, no matter whether they voted for me or not. We are linked together by what we believe as Hoosiers.”

Walorski, 53, had been a representative in the Indiana House for six years when she first sought the Second District seat in 2012. Her willingness to reach across the aisle is something not every candidate would highlight, but Walorski says that is part of the reason she has been able to get things done while in office.

“It takes help. You can’t do anything by yourself there,” she said. “You fight hard, you work hard with whoever will work with you to move whatever you want to move, or to play defense and slow down or kill what you think will be bad. I have been successful at both – not by myself, but because I built partnerships across the aisle.”

Walorski is facing a challenge from Democrat Lynn Coleman and Libertarian Ron Cenkush.

Walorski said the key issues and priorities in her district are national security, economic security and veteran care. She spends a lot of “time, energy and passion” focused on those areas when she is in Washington D.C.

“I believe, the last three-and-a-half years, with not having a commander in chief engaged in anything, we are disjointed,” she said. “That is why I think national security is important, and that is why I have done some of the stuff I have done with moving some of these bills, like putting a moratorium in moving Guantanamo Bay detainees, so the president just can’t simply release the worst of the worst to go back into fighting and killing more Americans.”

Economically, she says that “heavy duty, oppressive” federal regulations are hurting businesses.

“There is not a day that goes by that I am not talking to a CEO someplace that says if they would just stop on the manufacturing of regulations. You can’t even get to one before another one is rolling out,” Walorski said.

She is also focused on fixing poverty issues and is actively involved in a GOP initiative called “A Better Way”. The initiative aims to tackle the welfare cliff that some individuals get stuck on and, according to Walorski, keeps people in a poverty cycle.

“What can we roll into tax reform and entitlement reform that will actually build that bridge that allows people to bridge out of poverty,” she said. “We have really put a lot of principles in this intiative that have said we need to get busy and finally get our hand to the plow here and allow people to set themselves free. Instead of just adding more to the problem or throwing things at the problem that don’t work.”

Read more: http://www.elkharttruth.com/news/walorski-outlines-vision-for-third-term-in-congress/article_0c4e90d5-1948-5e4e-a8c7-563ac8a122f3.html