About Luke

Congressman Luke Messer is a conservative reformer with a proven track record of getting things done.  He represents Indiana’s 6th Congressional District, a 19 county region of east-central and southeastern Indiana comprised of manufacturing and agricultural communities.  He currently serves on the House Financial Services Committee and the Committee on Education and the Workforce.  He previously served on the House Budget and Foreign Affairs Committees.

Elected Freshman Class President by his peers in 2012, Luke hit the ground running in Washington and had two bills and an amendment passed in the House during his first year in office. Both bills seek to promote accountability and transparency in government.

Before Congress, Luke served two terms in the Indiana State House where he authored nationally recognized high school drop-out reform legislation that, among other reforms, raised the graduation age to 18.  This legislation helped spur a dramatic improvement in Indiana’s graduation rate—increasing it from 71% the year the bill passed to 88% today.

Following his service in the state legislature, Luke continued to champion education reform in the private sector as President and CEO of School Choice Indiana and Hoosiers for Economic Growth. His leadership in those organizations resulted in major school choice reform in Indiana and helped position the state as a national school choice leader.  Currently, more than 20,000 students participate in Indiana’s School Choice Scholarship Program.  Building on those efforts, Luke formed the Congressional School Choice Caucus in 2014 and has introduced sweeping school choice legislation that will allow states to use federal education funds to expand education choice programs.

A 6th generation Hoosier, Luke and his younger brother were raised by a single-mom who still works in a factory in Greensburg, Indiana.   From a young age, Luke’s mom instilled in him the values of hard work, Hoosier common-sense and personal responsibility.  He worked his way through school by detasseling corn, collecting garbage, mowing lawns, and umpiring baseball games.

A varsity letterman on the Wabash College football team, Luke graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.  He then earned his law degree from Vanderbilt University where he also served on the Law Review.

Luke met his wife Jennifer on a blind date in December 1999.  They married a little over two years later and now have three children—two daughters, Ava and Emma and a son, Hudson.   Luke is also the author of a children’s book Hoosier Heart which was illustrated by his wife.