Meet Candidate

Hello there, I’m Tom Luck.

You may remember a Texas that I remember, where people like Jerry Jeff Walker, Molly Ivins, and others had a kind of irreverent reverence. It was an irreverent reverence about the truth, about what really mattered, and I’m at a point where I am really tired of the politicians of Texas pretending that there are things that matter which frankly do not matter. We hear about school vouchers, while the vast majority of our rural communities are served only by public schools that are underfunded. We hear about bathrooms. We hear about everything that doesn’t matter to the ordinary lives of ordinary Texans, and I am tired of it.

I’m a 6th generation Texan. My family came over here in 1845 as part of the German migration to get away from class structure and oppression in Europe. They were against racism. They were against slavery. The vast majority of those German Texans were against secession and the civil war. That’s the kind of Texas I remember and care about, and so I’m here to say I’m going to run for Texas House District 19. I am running because if ordinary people like us do not step up we are in deep, deep, cow poop.

I’m a follower of Jesus Christ, have been my whole life. I have tried to serve God in various ways in the church and outside the church, and I am really concerned that there are people who are trying to take the name of Jesus and the will of God and make it into something which is blasphemous, which is heretical, and which is not of God’s choosing.

• Racism is not of God’s choosing.
• Denying help to people who are poor is not of God’s choosing.
• Denying food to people who are hungry is not of God’s choosing
• Judging people based on the color of their skin or national origin is not of God’s choosing.
• Denying people affordable health care through federally funded Medicaid is not of God’s choosing.
• Denying people freedom to love who they love and receiving legal status, people who are all made in God’s image, is not of God’s choosing.
• Gun violence is too prevalent, particularly when it comes to suicide. I am a gun owner, a hunter, and a supporter of the second amendment. And, like most gun owners I believe in common sense gun laws. I had a brother and stepson who found it too easy to acquire handguns and take their own lives, and that is not of God’s choosing.
• All of these things are bad for rural communities and cities of Texas, and not of God’s choosing.

I am pro-life and pro-choice. I believe life begins at conception. And I believe that, following one’s conscience, informed by consultation with her physician, and guidance with one’s faith, it is the sacred choice of a pregnant woman whether or not a pregnancy should be terminated; not the courts, and most especially not the Texas legislature.

It is a manipulation of the highest degree that there are those trying to say that to be Christian is to be white, to speak English, and to vote a particular way. That is not of God. So, I hope you will be part of a bigger movement, a wider movement of following God however you understand God; a God who is compassionate and caring, who created all people, who loves all people, does not want any people to be hungry, does not want any people to be deprived of healthcare, who does not want any people to be deprived of housing. Then we need to put this movement into action, and not just through churches and other organizations of goodwill. We need to find partners and make partners in government, which is “we the people.” How do we show our will, how do we show that this is the country where the people govern if not by doing the things that the people wish to happen?

Throughout my over forty years of parish ministry in the Episcopal Church, I was involved in church legislation of policy making around issues of poverty, racism, health care, gender equality, and hunger. I was the founding Convener of the Hunger Free Mason Community Collaborative. I served rural, suburban, and urban communities in Texas, New England, and New York.

In my retirement I have 1) served churches in Texas as a part-time as an Episcopal priest, 2) worked in the Texas wine industry as a tour guide, wine club manager, and tasting room ambassador, and 3) served as a substitute teacher in the Fredericksburg ISD.

My wife, Jane Lewis, and I met at Austin College in 1975 where we both sang in choir. We were only friends and went our separate ways.

When I retired to Texas in 2014, we were reacquainted and eventually married in 2016. Together we share five children, seven grandchildren, and our dog, Simon. We have lived in Fredericksburg since 2014.

I’m asking you for your support. I’m asking for your endorsement. I’m asking that we move in the direction of what is truly Texas and what really, really matters, not the billionaires and largely nameless people who are jerking the chains of our folks in Austin. So, we have to take this on, and I’m asking for your support.

Education

Diploma, Lake Highlands High School, Dallas, TX, 1974

Bachelor of Arts, Philosophy/British Studies, Austin College, Sherman, TX, 1978

Master of Divinity, Parish Ministry, Nashotah Theological Seminary, Nashotah, WI, 1981

Master of Liberal Arts, Religious Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 2008

Doctor of Ministry, Congregational Development, Bexley Seabury Seminary, Chicago, IL, 2022

Level II in Wine, Wine and Spirits Education Trust, via Hill Country Wine Academy, 2023

Ambassador of Texas Wine, Hill Country Wine Academy, 2023

Latino Ministry Competency Course, the Episcopal Church, Atlanta, GA, and Sewanee TN, 2025

Certificate in Hunger Insecurity, Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, Baylor University, Waco, TX 2025