Rudy Yakym, the Republican candidate running for Indiana’s 2nd District Congressional seat, talked to the media Friday, Oct. 28, while at the Downtown Eatery and Spirits in Warsaw. InkFreeNews photo by Dan Spalding.

By Dan Spalding
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Republican Congressional candidate Rudy Yakym III offered strong words of support on Friday, Oct. 28, for the U.S. role in defending Ukraine against Russia.

Yakym, the 38-year-old Granger resident who was chosen less than three months ago by Republicans to replace the late U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski on the ballot after her unexpected death, spent much of his time Friday meeting and campaigning with people in Warsaw.

Yakym will face Democrat Paul Steury and Libertarian William Henry in the Nov. 8 election.

Those same candidates will also participate in a special election on Nov. 8 to fill the remaining weeks left in Walorski’s term.

With 11 days to go before Election Day, he met with two reporters for about 12 minutes before gathering with others at The Downtown Eatery and Spirits. After that, he was expected to meet a long list of area leaders until early evening.

He said the campaign is “taking nothing for granted” and trying to visit each county as many times as possible.

Yakym outlined his priorities and offered some insight into how he would like to legislate.

His top priority is working to reduce inflation, which has reached a 40-year high and hurting consumers across the board.

“We know what’s caused that,” Yakym said. “It’s an imbalanced budget. We’re spending a few trillion dollars per year more than we are taking in and so we need to balance our budget to fix inflation.”

He also expressed the need to focus on energy independence and a range of security issues from supporting local police to the United States’ role in international affairs.

He was asked specifically about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

“We cannot allow nations to bulldoze other nations. We cannot allow that to happen,” he said.

He also took a subtle jab at the Biden Administration.

“Weakness arouses evil,” Yakym said. “The weakness of the United States on the international stage has aroused the Russian empire and it’s emboldened them to come across the western front.”

However, improved military engagement from the United States seems to be helping the Ukrainians as they push back against Russian troops.

Yakym was a former advisor to Walorski and the two knew each other for more than a dozen years. After her death on Aug. 3, Republicans in the district quickly coalesced around him.

If he would win on Nov. 8, he would be entering into a heavily divisive political landscape and was asked how he would approach his job.

He said getting in front of cameras and yelling is easier than finding compromise.

“What’s hard is putting together a broad group of people around a table and saying we have real issues in this county …. what are the solutions and policies?”

“What I want to be known for is being an effective conservative leader who’s not afraid to pull big groups of people together and say, ‘these are the issues, let’s find solutions,’ ” Yakym said.

Yakym said he’d like to follow suit with Walorski by being a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

“It’s a committee you can really influence and drive a lot of good policy. That’s a committee I’d love to have an opportunity to serve on.”