Thomas Gilbert Loeffler (born August 1, 1946) is an American politician and Republican former member of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

from central

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. He served four terms from 1979 to 1987.

Biography

Loeffler was born in Fredericksburg in the heart of the Texas Hill Country and attended school in Mason in Mason County. He earned a BBA and a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

degrees from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

and the

University of Texas School of Law The University of Texas School of Law (Texas Law) is the Law school in the United States, law school of the University of Texas at Austin, a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas. According to Texas Law’s American Bar ...

. At Texas, he was on the football team in 1965-66, but did not letter. In 1971, after just one year of private practice, he was hired by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Republican U.S. Senator John Tower made Loeffler his chief counsel in 1972. Two years later, he became a deputy for the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear w ...

Political career

Loeffler was a legislative assistant to U.S. President

Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Ford assumed the p ...

, from 1975 to 1977. He successfully ran for Congress in 1978 against the Democrat Nelson Wolff, now the county judge of Bexar County. The two-term Democratic incumbent, Bob Krueger, gave up the seat to make an unsuccessful run for the Senate. Loeffler won in a landslide, taking 57 percent of the vote against Wolff–a sharp turnabout from 1976, in which Krueger took 71 percent of the vote. However, the district had been moving away from its Democratic roots for some time. He would never face another contest nearly as close as his first one, and was reelected three more times by over 70 percent of the vote. Loeffler was a delegate to all three Republican National Conventions during the 1980s.

Later career

After four terms in the House, he stepped down to run for governor of Texas but lost a hard-fought Republican primary election to the eventual winner, Bill Clements. Another losing contender was former U.S. Representative Kent Hance, who had defeated

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

for Congress in 1978 in the Lubbock-based district. After his congressional career, Loeffler was appointed to the Office of Legislative Affairs as the coordinator for

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

n policies. In 1989, Loeffler became a University of Texas administrator. He later co-founded the lobbying firm Gray Loeffler LLC, representing clients including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Like Loeffler, Clements also is active in the McCain presidential campaign. Loeffler is the father of former Minnesota Vikings long snapper Cullen Loeffler. His other son, Lance Loeffler, became an oil and gas executive with

Halliburton Halliburton Company is an American multinational corporation and the world's second-largest oil service company which is responsible for most of the world's fracking operations. It employs approximately 55,000 people through its hundreds of su ...

. Lance previously worked in investment banking, holding senior level positions with both Deutsche Bank in their energy practice and UBS in their energy and healthcare practices.

References

External links

* , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Loeffler, Tom 1946 births Living people People from Fredericksburg, Texas People from Mason, Texas Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Texas Texas lawyers McCombs School of Business alumni University of Texas School of Law alumni Texas Longhorns football players Members of Congress who became lobbyists 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives