Luke Messer

Early life, education, and law career

Messer graduated from Greensburg Community High School in 1987.

Messer attended Wabash College where he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity and majored in speech. He graduated in 1991. He received a law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1994. Shortly after Messer graduated from Vanderbilt, he served as an Associate Counsel at Koch Industries from 1995 to 1996.

Early political career

Messer started his political career serving as the press secretary for Tennessee Representative Ed Bryant in 1997. He served as the legal counsel on the House Subcommittee for Government Reform for Indiana Representative's David McIntosh and Dan Burton from 1998 to 1999, and as the legal counsel to U.S. Representative Jim Duncan later in 1999. In 1998, he served as the campaign manager for Virginia Murphy Blankenbaker's unsuccessful congressional campaign. In 1999, Messer returned to Indiana and was a practicing attorney at the Barnes & Thornburg Law Firm in Indianapolis.

In 2000, Messer ran for the United States House of Representatives in Indiana's 2nd congressional district, where incumbent David M. McIntosh was retiring to run for governor. Messer received the endorsement of The Indianapolis Star. He lost the election to Mike Pence.

Indiana House of Representatives

On May 23, 2003, Messer was sworn in by the Chief Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court Randall Shepard to fill the remainder of the late W. Roland Stine's term. From 2003 to 2006, Messer represented District 57 in the Indiana House of Representatives, which contained portions of Shelby County and Bartholomew County. During the 2005-2006 legislative session, Messer served as the Assistant Majority Floor Leader. His legislation aimed at curbing high school drop-out rates received national attention after Shelbyville High School became a symbol of a national dropout crisis. He did not run for re-election as State Representative in 2006, and was succeeded by Sean Eberhart.

Lobbying work

Messer was a registered lobbyist from 2006 to 2012.

In 2006, Messer joined Ice Miller LLP's "lobbying division" as a partner of their public affairs group. Messer's decision to join Ice Miller LLP came a month after voting in favor of Indiana leasing the Indiana Toll Road to Cintra-Macquarie, an international consortium, for "75 years at a cost of $3.85 billion." Ice Miller, the largest law firm in Indiana, represented Cintra-Macquarie in the deal. Messer claimed, "I did not know they represented anyone in connection with the Toll Road."

Messer served as the Indiana co-chair of John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. In 2010, Messer ran for the House of Representatives in Indiana's 5th congressional district. He challenged Dan Burton, the incumbent representative, in the Republican primary. Burton narrowly defeated Messer in the election. Messer then became president and CEO of School Choice Indiana, a lobbying group that supported Indiana's private school voucher law.

Since being elected to Congress in 2012, Ice Miller LLP has been Messer's number one source of campaign contributions, having given him $82,238.

Elections

In May 2011, Mike Pence announced his intentions to run for Governor of Indiana. Messer subsequently declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination to represent the 6th District. His home in Shelbyville had been shifted from the 5th District to the 6th District in redistricting. On May 8, 2012, Messer defeated the grassroots effort by Columbus real estate investor Travis Hankins, winning with 71% of the vote. He faced Democrat Brad Bookout, a Delaware County councilman, in the general election. On November 6, 2012, Messer defeated Bookout with roughly 59% of the vote. After the election, Messer moved to the Washington metropolitan area.

Committee assignments

Tenure

In 2013, Messer signed a pledge sponsored by conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity promising to vote against any global warming legislation that would raise taxes.

In November 2014, Messer was elected by his colleagues to Republican House Leadership as the House Republican Policy Committee Chairman, succeeding James Lankford, who had been elected to the United States Senate. Messer defeated Tom Reed and Rob Woodall.

Immigration

Messer commented on the work of a 2013 bipartisan House working group on immigration reform, saying that a pathway to citizenship and a deal on metrics to measure border security would be the biggest challenges to final passage of immigration reform. Messer told Indiana's Biz Voice Magazine, "Those who came here unlawfully will have to pay penalties and back fees."

Messer supported President Donald Trump's 2017 executive order to impose a temporary ban on entry to the U.S. to citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, describing it as a measure to "protect Americans from terrorist threats" and saying that "President Trump is right to prioritize American safety."

Messer authored legislation that would prevent undocumented immigrants from claiming the child tax credit. President Donald Trump included the same proposal in his 2018 budget request to Congress.

Education

Messer founded the Congressional School Choice caucus to promote the expansion of school voucher programs.

Messer authored legislation to "upend the way American students pay for college." His legislation lays the framework for income share agreements, which have several advantages over traditional student loans.

Messer has introduced legislation to require annual debt letters to be sent to student loan borrowers, which is based on an Indiana University program that reduced borrowing at the institution by 10 percent.

Messer also worked to pass bipartisan legislation to prevent student loan interest rates from doubling in 2013 and to link student loan interest rates to market rates.

Messer worked with Sen. Patty Murray to restore Pell Grant eligibility to students who were attending ITT Tech when the institution closed, by convincing the Education Department to restore these benefits using an existing statute.

Veterans

Messer supported a GI Bill reform package passed by the House on June 25, 2017, which included a provision he authored that would retroactively restore education benefits to veterans attending schools that close mid-semester, like ITT Technical Institute.

Healthcare

Messer voted for the House bill American Health Care Act of 2017, to partially repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Personal life

Messer and his wife Jennifer have two daughters and one son. Jennifer Messer is the author of a children’s book called Hoosier Heart.

Residency controversy

Following Messer's election to Congress, he sold his house in Shelbyville, Indiana and moved to McLean, Virginia, a wealthy Washington, D.C. suburb. He is now listed as a registered voter at his mother-in-law's address in Greensburg, Indiana.

Messer has faced criticism for moving his family to the Washington, D.C. area, especially amidst speculation that he is preparing for a run for the United States Senate. Residency concerns have plagued other Indiana elected officials, like former Democratic Senator Evan Bayh and Republican Richard Lugar. Questions regarding Bayh's residency was a key theme in the 2016 Senate election in Indiana, which he ultimately lost to Todd Young.

Jennifer Messer's legal work controversy

Fishers, an Indianapolis suburb, has paid Luke Messer's wife, Jennifer Messer, $580,000 since 2015 in legal consulting she primarily does from the family's Washington, D.C. area home. Jennifer Messer makes $20,000 a month doing contract work for the city. Jennifer Messer began work for the City of Fishers two years before Luke Messer was elected to Congress. Her contract is worth more than the salaries of the city's two full-time staff attorneys, and much of the work Jennifer is contracted to do is handled by these attorneys or local firms. Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness said the arrangement helped usher in an era of "unprecedented" economic success in the growing suburb of about 85,000 people. The city pays her $240,000 a year, and it has generated criticism of Luke Messer, who ran for Congress in 2012 on a pledge to "stop reckless spending." Messer has defended his wife's work, calling her "the brains of the Messer outfit", and Jennifer defended her work in an op-ed for The Indianapolis Star by accusing the Associated Press of being "unfair, intellectually dishonest and straight-up sexist".

Additional Associated Press reporting found that Jennifer Messer makes $20,000 a month working "part-time primarily from her Washington area home." Jennifer Messer works on average 26.5-hour work week, having only once worked a full 40-hour week.