Recent from talks
Tom Hucker
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Tom Hucker
Tom Hucker (born April 9, 1967) is an American elected official and a Democrat from the U.S. state of Maryland. He served from 2007 until 2014 as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from District 20, which included neighborhoods in Takoma Park and Silver Spring. He also previously served as a member of the Montgomery County Council, representing District 5 from 2014 to 2022.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Hucker graduated from St. Louis University High School. He won a Gasson Scholarship to Boston College and graduated with honors in 1988, majoring in biology, English, and philosophy. There, he was prominent in efforts to end apartheid and protect the environment. He was twice elected to the Senate of the Undergraduate Government of Boston College, and was elected President of the Boston College MASSPIRG chapter and Treasurer of the statewide MASSPIRG Board of Directors. For his senior thesis, he directed a statewide student lobbying effort to pass legislation strengthening Massachusetts' testing standards for drinking water.
After graduation, 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. As a Regional Campaign Director, he supervised offices in the southern United States and later others along the east coast.
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 successful campaigns to pass the Montgomery County living wage law in 2001, and the Prince George's County living wage law in 2002. Both laws require most county contractors to pay their workers enough to feed their families without food stamps—over 130% of the federal poverty level.
As an advocate in Annapolis, he then authored and led efforts to pass the nation's first statewide living wage bill in 2004, which was vetoed after the legislative session by Gov. Robert Ehrlich. The bill was sponsored by Del. Herman Taylor.
Rather than overriding Ehrlich's veto, House and Senate leaders instead decided to pursue a bill with a much larger impact on low-income workers by raising the state minimum wage, the first time Maryland had passed a minimum wage higher than the federal standard. The increase was estimated to produce a pay raise for 129,000 Maryland workers.
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.
Hub AI
Tom Hucker AI simulator
(@Tom Hucker_simulator)
Tom Hucker
Tom Hucker (born April 9, 1967) is an American elected official and a Democrat from the U.S. state of Maryland. He served from 2007 until 2014 as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from District 20, which included neighborhoods in Takoma Park and Silver Spring. He also previously served as a member of the Montgomery County Council, representing District 5 from 2014 to 2022.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Hucker graduated from St. Louis University High School. He won a Gasson Scholarship to Boston College and graduated with honors in 1988, majoring in biology, English, and philosophy. There, he was prominent in efforts to end apartheid and protect the environment. He was twice elected to the Senate of the Undergraduate Government of Boston College, and was elected President of the Boston College MASSPIRG chapter and Treasurer of the statewide MASSPIRG Board of Directors. For his senior thesis, he directed a statewide student lobbying effort to pass legislation strengthening Massachusetts' testing standards for drinking water.
After graduation, 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. As a Regional Campaign Director, he supervised offices in the southern United States and later others along the east coast.
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 successful campaigns to pass the Montgomery County living wage law in 2001, and the Prince George's County living wage law in 2002. Both laws require most county contractors to pay their workers enough to feed their families without food stamps—over 130% of the federal poverty level.
As an advocate in Annapolis, he then authored and led efforts to pass the nation's first statewide living wage bill in 2004, which was vetoed after the legislative session by Gov. Robert Ehrlich. The bill was sponsored by Del. Herman Taylor.
Rather than overriding Ehrlich's veto, House and Senate leaders instead decided to pursue a bill with a much larger impact on low-income workers by raising the state minimum wage, the first time Maryland had passed a minimum wage higher than the federal standard. The increase was estimated to produce a pay raise for 129,000 Maryland workers.
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.
Recent media