Larry Luster

Larry Luster was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and is a lifelong resident of Springfield, Illinois. He is a graduate of Sacred Heart-Griffin High School, William Rainey Harper College and Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. At Harper College, Larry won a National Championship in football and went to the track and field National Championship. While at SIUC, he served as a captain on the football team and was also a part of the track and field team. 

Luster’s political career began with facilitating voter registration drives as president of his fraternity chapter at SIUC, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. He led an effort to register over 1,700 students to vote, resulting in turning a number of local seats from Republican to Democrat. The effort effectively succeeded in turning a red county, blue.

His work led him to becoming an ambassador with the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute and his selection for the Springfield Internship Program working with the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees. Larry also interned at Planned Parenthood.

As a member of the Illinois Senate Democratic Caucus Communications Staff, Larry was tasked with generating press materials, helping form legislative agendas and strategies to pass legislation. He also worked to develop a position that was devoted to assisting the Black Caucus in shining light on issues unique to the Black community.

Luster was selected to work as a field director on the campaigns for state Senators Gary Forby and Mike Jacobs. He was responsible for increasing voter turnout by double digits in both Senate races. Larry also served as a campaign strategist for Senator Napoleon Harris III and a campaign press secretary for Senator Emil Jones III. 

In early 2016, Luster was promoted to management for the Illinois Senate Democrats. Later that year, he moved on to serve as Executive Director of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus Foundation. 

After working for the ILBCF, Larry took a position as the Political Director and Field Director for now Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul. Larry led an effort to ensure the removal of former Governor Bruce Rauner and his candidate for attorney general, Erica Harold.

Most recently, Luster served as the director of policy and outreach at the Roosevelt Group/Reyes Kurson (RK) Law firm. In his role, Larry lobbied for a diverse group of clients, organized public affairs campaigns, hosted fundraisers, led legislative and political strategy meetings along with a multitude of other tasks. Some of the clients Larry advocated for include: Rivers Casino, the Illinois Restaurant Association, the Illinois Hospital Association, the Illinois Medical District, ComEd, Peoples Gas, several municipalities, several financial institutions, members of the pharmaceutical industry and many more.

Larry recently took on a new role as special project coordinator for the American Business Immigration Coalition to help the organization reach the Black community during the COVID-19 crisis. Luster is assisting with outreach, media relations, coalition building, digital marketing and direct technical assistance to businesses.

Larry is married to his beautiful wife Sierra, and has 2 daughters: Kenadie (13) and Olivia (2).