• Office Sought: Representative, Indiana (4)
• Birth Date: April 12, 1944
• Web site: http://www.nels4congress.com/
• E-mail address: nels@nels4congress.com

Education

• Harvard Law School, JD
• Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, MPP
• Purdue University, BS

Democrat Nels Ackerson is a veteran attorney seeking to defeat eight-term Republican Rep. Steve Buyer in Indiana's 4th District. The meandering district covers parts of north, south, central and western Indiana and is largely considered GOP territory.

Ackerson, 64, earned a bachelor's degree in agricultural economics from Purdue University in 1967 and later earned his law degree from Harvard University. He helped manage a family farm in Indiana, and for two years was chief counsel of the U.S. Senate's Subcommittee on the Constitution under then-Indiana Sen. Birch Bayh.

In 1980 he was the Democratic nominee in what was then the state's 5th District, but he lost to Bud Hills. It has been his only run for public office.

In 1991 he founded his own law firm, now named Ackerson Kauffman Fex, representing farmers, ranchers and homeowners in property rights cases, among other things.

Ackerson lives in Zionsville, just north of Indianapolis. He and his wife, Sharon, have four grown children.