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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

Rep. Luke Messer visits IU College Republicans on his trail to the Senate

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13 boxes of pizza can get anyone excited about politics. 

“I have no illusions as to why y'all are here tonight,” Rep. Luke Messer, R-Indiana, joked. 

Rep. Messer, a two-term congressman for Indiana’s 6th District and current candidate for the U.S. Senate, encouraged students Monday night at the IU College Republicans meeting to help others understand how they must keep the Republican party moving forward. 

“Are you operating in a way that is making our party bigger, not smaller?” Messer asked. 

Messer spoke with the students during their weekly meeting, and asked the students to think about what being a conservative means to them. 

“It’s not my responsibility to pay for your stuff,” one said. 

“Freedom of the people,” said another. 

“The founders were onto something when they wrote the constitution,” another said, forcing a laugh from the audience. 

Messer stopped the conversation there for a minute. 

“Not one of you said, 'I’m a Republican so the rich get to stay rich, so the powerful get to stay powerful.'”

He said that, as someone from a single-parent family, he wants to represent Hoosiers and show that a zip code does not define who they are or what they can become. 

Messer was first elected to Indiana’s 6th District in 2012 and serves on the House Education and Workforce committees, specifically looking at K-12 education and banking reform. 

Now, he has his sights set on the Senate. 

Reagan Kurk, chairperson of IU College Republicans, said in the meeting that the campaign for the U.S. Senate seat was the most competitive current Senate campaign.

Messer is running to unseat Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Indiana, whose seat in the U.S. Senate was long held by former Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Indiana.

Kurk said they reach out to speakers over the course of the year to come to meetings for the organization. They currently also have Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Indiana, another Senate candidate in the GOP primary, on the schedule. 

Messer, a supporter of school choice and workforce reform, said although he and Rokita have voted in similar ways on many issues, the biggest difference between them is temperament and experience. 

“I know the American dream because I’ve lived it,” Messer said. “I know in my heart that our policies create the best opportunity for the most people.” 

Students asked questions for the better half of the talk, questioning him on how he plans to bring the party together. He said the answer was in tax reform. 

Attendees also wanted to know his stances on abortion rights. 

“The first of our inalienable rights is life,” Messer said. “You can’t have those others if you don’t have life.”

They asked Messer how he planned on working to make healthcare better for the country if he was elected.

“It all starts from the foundation of patient choice,” he said. He compared it to education choice for students, and school choices. “If you make sure every student has an opportunity, then it’ll turn out just fine.”

Messer has worked with Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in the past, specifically while he was president of School Choice Indiana, a nonpartisan education organization. He said she has been judged unfairly since her nomination. 

“I just know her to be a good decent person who’s devoted a lot of her career to figuring out how we can provide different opportunities for kids,” Messer said. “I think Indiana is a test case of how you can get better education opportunities for every kid who can make sure that a student’s future isn’t determined by their zip code, and see growth in education.”

The students also asked him what he thought of the recent DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals decision by the Trump administration, and how the children may be affected by it, he responded that while they are a sympathetic group of people who may not have had a choice in coming here, must know whatever solution found in DACA must include meaningful, physical border security and enforcement. He said this does not mean they do not care. 

“We can’t allow them to paint us as the guys with the handlebar mustaches,” Messer said. 

He said repeatedly Donnelly is a nice guy, but he presents himself to be a centrist, when the policies he supports are anything but.

Messer said he will be working toward issues of national security if elected, including being clear and decisive on North Korea, something he said Donnelly has only recently made a priority. 

“I want North Korea to know if they attack us, they’re gone.” Messer said.

The Senate passed the Fiscal Year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, a bipartisan national defense bill Monday night, announced during Messer's talk. The bill includes Donnelly's measure requiring the Department of Defense bring to Congress a clear, comprehensive strategy to confront the threat in North Korea, according to a release from Donnelly's campaign. 

The bill includes provisions to recognize and support contributions Hoosiers can make to national security, and includes $8.5 billion for missile defense system upgrades, an effort Donnelly pushed as a member of the Strategic Forces subcommittee. 

He said Donnelly had little to say during the Obama administration when North Korea ran four missile tests.

“Frankly, he’s playing a little bit of politics with our national security,” Messer said. 

But he did say he ultimately hopes they can work together to do the right thing for the country on all fronts. 

“We need to make sure Hoosiers have a clear picture of not only what Joe Donnelly says, but what he does,” Messer said. “What he’s selling to Hoosiers is not what he is.”

He ended the speech with a call to action for the young College Republicans. He told them to jump at every opportunity they could to get involved in a campaign. He said it was important to work with someone who they not only liked, but could believe in. 

“There is a misconception that, unless you say it with a snarl, you’re just not conservative enough,” Messer said. “You can stand on a principle and be polite while you do it.”

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