On his fourth U.S. Senate campaign stop of the day, Rep. Luke Messer, R-6th District, sipped a Sun King beer while he met with IU students and Bloomington community members.
In the peak of the U.S. Senate primary race for the Republican nomination in Indiana, he’d been to two Pizza Kings on Saturday, but he switched it up in the afternoon with some boneless buffalo wings at BuffaLouie's.
“I like hot on everything,” he told the group.
That may come in handy, as the Republican primary race is only heating up more in its last month before the May 8 primary. He wanted to hear from the students, largely made up of College Republicans at IU members and supporters of Messer’s, on how they felt about about President Trump.
“Are the political debates pretty heated here on campus?” Messer asked the students.
Despite lots of smiles and nods while he was talking, only two people asked questions during the official meet-and-greet, though others came up to him afterward to talk.
“What’re you guys interested in?” he asked again.
There were smiles, but no responses.
“I’ll just drink my Sun King,” he said, getting some laughs from the audience.
Throughout the meet-and-greet, which served one platter of boneless buffalo wings for those mingling around, Messer said he is who he says he is. He is a husband. He is a father. He is the son of a single mother. He’s a conservative who supports Trump, and he says he’s never going to hide from it.
Messer repeated this exact phrase more than a few times throughout the hour.
He said Sen. Joe Donnelly, the Democrat he's running to unseat, is not who he says he is. He said he is the only candidate who can beat the incumbent. He said his current opponents, Rep. Todd Rokita, R-4th District and former state representative Mike Braun, are pretending.
Messer defended himself against false information he says has been swirling around the media from these opponents. He did not say what these rumors were, but repeated they were not true.
He acknowledged college campuses tend to be more liberal than the state as a whole, but they have still had overwhelming success with college Republicans across the state.
“They’re our strongest grassroots supporters," Messer said in an interview with the Indiana Daily Student. "They’re a big part of why we’ve been able to make hundreds of thousands of grassroots phone calls. So their presence matters, not just as voters themselves, but as what they are of the grassroots effort statewide.”
Justin Sexton, IU junior and chairman of the College Republicans chapter, said Messer has the strongest chance of beating Donnelly, and the students have been calling for Messer’s campaign every Tuesday this year.
“The resource of college kids can be great,” Sexton said. “I support him 100 percent.”
Messer said in an interview with the IDS he did not support gun bans, and he did support campus firearm carry. He said he has supported efforts in making sure background check systems work more effectively.
He said he has worked to do this through legislation. He co-authored the Student, Teachers and Officers Preventing School Violence Act of 2018, which was signed into law last Monday.
Messer left the group largely made up of students with one thought. He told them what he says to his daughters when they express feelings of hate: “There’s only one thing in life worth really hating, and that’s gravity, because gravity is undefeated.”
With four weeks to go before primary election day, he isn’t making any assumptions, but he said he believes truth is on his side in terms of the matchup between him and Donnelly. He's already looking ahead to November.
“I believe a whole lot of college students will vote our way when they understand the truth about Joe Donnelly’s record, and the truth about my record,” Messer said.
A previous version of this article included a sentence referring to advice Messer gave his daughters. After review of a recording of the event, the statement has since been clarified.
