Barely a month before the Indiana Republican Senate primary, Rep. Luke Messer, R-Ind., has released his third television ad and reintroduced the story of his upbringing in terms of President Trump’s inaugural promise that “the forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.”
“You know who he’s talking about?” Messer says after that clip of Trump plays. “People like my mom.”
The television ad, first obtained by the Washington Examiner, underscores the blue-collar start Chris Messer made for her son in little Greensburg as vintage photos of the city, her workplace, and her home — the house Messer would later help his mother buy — flash onscreen.
“She worked at the Delta Faucet Factory, raised me and my brother by herself. That’s why I back the Trump agenda in Congress,” Messer tells the camera as his mother plays at the kitchen table with his own boy. “It’s Pro-Family, Pro-Life and Pro-America with no apologies.”
That’s in keeping with the general theme of the Messer Senate campaign. While his opponents have thrown elbows in their ads, the candidate has tried to strike a positive tone. Each of his advertisements have highlighted his role as a family man — his daughters starred in the first and his son in the second. All have emphasized his candidacy as part of an ongoing alliance with the Trump administration.
The Indiana electorate seems willing to reward Messer for that decision. Hoosier voters have shown a distaste for acerbic politics in the past and demonstrated an unwavering allegiance to Trump’s vice president, former Indiana Gov.Mike Pence.
Messer has made a point to campaign alongside the vice president’s brother, Greg Pence who is running for the open House seat in Indiana’s 6th Congressional District. Lining up alongside the White House by association, Messer both rededicates and identities with Trump’s promise to protect the “forgotten men and women.”
The ad is a smart message, one Hoosier voters seem predisposed to accept.
