James Burke (Indiana)

James Burke

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Independent

Candidate, U.S. House Indiana District 8

Elections and appointments

Next election

November 3, 2026

Education

High school

Terre Haute South High School

Personal

Religion

Not religious

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign X

James Burke (independent) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Indiana's 8th Congressional District. He declared candidacy for the 2026 election.^[source]

Burke completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

James Burke earned a high school diploma from Terre Haute South High School and received a carpenter's apprenticeship. He also attended Western Governors University.

Elections

2026

See also: Indiana's 8th Congressional District election, 2026

Note: At this time, Ballotpedia is combining all declared candidates for this election into one list under a general election heading. As primary election dates are published, this information will be updated to separate general election candidates from primary candidates as appropriate.

General election

The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.

General election for U.S. House Indiana District 8

Incumbent Mark Messmer, Mary Allen, Christopher Rector, Daniel George, and James Burke are running in the general election for U.S. House Indiana District 8 on November 3, 2026.

		Candidate
		Mark Messmer (R)
	Submit photo	Mary Allen (D)
		Christopher Rector (D)
	Submit photo	Daniel George (R)
	Submit photo	James Burke (Independent)

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Endorsements

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Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

James Burke completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Burke's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Pro-choice, pro-union, pro-lgbqt+, trans women are women and trans men are men and what theyre doing isnt affecting your life in any way so leave them be, marriage and right equality, free Palestine.. firm believer that if a company makes billions in net profit they can either pay their employees a living wage or we tax the hell out of them.. there's no reason a company making 100 billion net profit should have any employee needing assistance.. I believe if the billionaires pay their far share we can have universal health care. Doge needs disbanded and we should set up forensic accountants , not kid programmers, with an office and their sole job is to audit looking for unnecessary spending like the military spending and musk spending.. I believe big money has no place in our elections and both houses of congress need to get back to working with the people.. I won't be doing fund raising, only campaigning I'm planning on is social media

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• If whatever someone else does, doesn't change the what your doing then leave them alone.
• Everyone has the right to the pursuit of their own happiness and dreams
• Free Palestine

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

The absorbent price of Healthcare, $4000 for a 5 minute ambulance ride, having to file bankruptcy or lose everything you've worked for because you got sick

Individual rights- no person ,white, black, Latino, gay straight, trans, ect, should ever be made to feel like they don't matter or that they have less alienate rights than any other person

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

The most important principle is to remember who you work for when you enter the halls in Washington D.C. You work for the people in your district and should work to make your constituents and evey other Americans life better. You do not work for the corporations and the lobbiests.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

Simply to pass effective legislation for the people that the parties have forgotten about. The poor, the veterans that served and protected the U.s.a and the ones still serving, the middle class who are spending thousands on health care and everyone that's ever been told by their health insurance provider that that's not covered

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

Pretty simple, that's was the space shuttle Challenger blowing up. We were watching it when it happened January 28th 1986

What do you perceive to be the United States’ greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

Over the next decade, there's going to be a lot of trying to mend our broken alliances and trying to bring the people of the U.S. back to at least being civil toward one

What are your thoughts on term limits?

I would be happy to vote yes on term limits. I've believed for a long time in term limits

Is there a particular representative, past or present, whom you want to model yourself after?

Bernie Sanders is definitely the goat.. he understands the needs of the next generation along with AOC

Do you believe that compromise is necessary or desirable for policymaking?

There should always be some back and forth in any debate in spending and what is the best way to do said spending to benefit the most people

The Constitution says that all bills for raising revenue must originate in the House. What role would this power play in your priorities if elected?

I definitively believe that any corporation making billions should pay high taxes if any of their employees have to use any kind of assistance, be it housing, snap etc. There is no reason not to pay these people just so you can appease your rich stockholders with buyback and dividends

What are your views on financial transparency and government accountability?

I feel if you are going into politics, then you should be fine with showing your taxes and also be OK with accountants doing regular oversite on your dealings in Washington. That also goes into the government, doge should be replaced with a team of forensic accountants to overview the money to make sure it goes where it is supposed to

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign finance summary

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Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

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James Burke campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2026*	U.S. House Indiana District 8	Candidacy Declared general	$0	N/A**
Grand total			$0	N/A**
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete
** Data on expenditures is not available for this election cycle
Note: Totals above reflect only available data.

See also

2026 Elections

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Government

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Newsletters

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External links

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Candidate

U.S. House Indiana District 8

Website

X

Footnotes

[show]

Indiana's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Jim Banks (R)

Todd Young (R)

Representatives

District 1

Frank Mrvan (D)

District 2

Rudy Yakym (R)

District 3

Marlin Stutzman (R)

District 4

Jim Baird (R)

District 5

Victoria Spartz (R)

District 6

Jefferson Shreve (R)

District 7

André Carson (D)

District 8

Mark Messmer (R)

District 9

Erin Houchin (R)

Republican Party (9)

Democratic Party (2)