A 20-year-old campaign aide to Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R) died Friday in a car crash in Georgia ahead of Loeffler’s campaign rally with Vice President Pence.
The campaign staffer, identified as Harrison Deal, was also a family friend of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) and a former intern for Sen. David Perdue (R), according to Fox News.
Loeffler expressed her condolences for Deal’s family on Twitter, calling him a “beloved member” of her campaign team.
“More importantly, Harrison was a smart, bright, loving, loyal and outstanding young man,” she wrote in a subsequent tweet, before asking her fellow Georgians to join her in praying for his family.
Loeffler and Kemp opted not to attend the Pence rally in Savannah after hearing of Deal’s death, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
A police spokeswoman told the Journal-Constituion that Deal died in a three-vehicle car crash on an interstate in Georgia on Friday morning.
“Today, we lost a member of our ‘Kemp Strong’ family and words cannot express how much Harrison Deals’ life, love and support meant to us,” the governor said in a statement he shared on Twitter, along with a photo of Deal with his family. “He was a person of deep faith, unmatched integrity, and incredible kindness. Harrison was the Kemp son and brother we never had.”
Perdue joined the Georgia lawmakers in expressing his grief in a series of tweets, writing that he was “devastated” to learn of Deal’s death.
Loeffler is campaigning in one of two Jan. 5 Senate runoffs in Georgia.