Tom Hucker

Tom Hucker is currently serving as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from District 20.

After graduating from Boston College where he was a student activist prominent in efforts to end apartheid and protect the environment, Hucker continued his career as a public interest advocate by moving to Washington, D.C. to work for the Fund for Public Interest Research.  There, he ran field campaigns for the United States Public Interest Research Group and the Sierra Club to reauthorize the federal Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and other federal legislation.

Hucker came to prominence in Maryland politics when he founded Progressive Maryland, an advocacy group, in 2001. The group brought together thousands of individual members in partnership with dozens of the state's largest community, labor, civil rights, and faith-based organizations into a single organization to improve the lives of working families in Maryland. The group combined door-to-door organizing, grassroots leadership development, policy research, and face-to-face advocacy with lawmakers.  In that role, he authored and led a successful campaign to pass the Montgomery County living wage law in 2001, and the Prince George's County living wage law in 2002. 

As director of Progressive Maryland, Hucker was recognized with the Friends of Latinos award by the Hispanic Democratic Club of Montgomery County, the Defenders of Justice award from the Maryland Alliance for Justice, and their Public Service award by the League of Korean Americans of Maryland.

Hucker was elected to his first term in the House of Delegates in 2006, after a four-month grassroots campaign. Hucker currently serves on the House Environmental Matters Committee, and on its Environment, Natural Resources, and Land Use and Ethics Subcommittees.  In April 2009, he was appointed to serve on the Climate, Energy, and Environment Policy Committee of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

In June 2009, the White House appointed Hucker to a new organization, State Legislators for Health Care Reform to provide policy advice and organize support for the President's national health care reform efforts.  In his first General Assembly session, Hucker authored and was co-lead sponsor of the first statewide living wage law in the nation.  In 2009, Hucker passed HB 184 to require the state to finalize a plan to offer universal pre-Kindergarten for all Maryland four-year olds, and HB 1263 to reduce mercury pollution by requiring auto manufacturers to pay to recycle mercury capsules in older American cars. Hucker has also sponsored legislation to expand health care access, provide mental health services for veterans, and ban discrimination in housing. 

Because of his years of successful advocacy inside and outside the General Assembly, Hucker now also serves on the Board of Directors of the Progressive States Network, a national nonprofit that provides research and strategic advocacy tools to help state legislators to pass progressive policy reforms, including legislation to reward work, strengthen communities, and expand health care access. Hucker also served on the Maryland for Obama Steering Committee.