Francis X. De Luca Files for 3rd District Congressional | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    Today Francis De Luca filed to run for US Congress from the 3rd District in North Carolina. He was born in Jacksonville, NC the youngest of 4 children to Mafalda(Tilda) Ruta and Joseph De Luca. His mother was a school teacher and his father a retired USMC TechSgt.

    He is running because in these troubled times we need leaders who will do the right thing. We must Rein in out of control spending, Uphold traditional American values and protect our country, especially at our borders.

    De Luca has a unique background where he was able to combine his love of our country, its values and traditions, with earning a living and serving. During that time, he served two combat tours, married and raised a family.

    He attended school in Jacksonville and graduated from Jacksonville high School. He attended the University of NC Wilmington and joined the USMC while in College. After finishing college with a bachelor's in social studies, he accepted his commission in the USMC and attended The Basic School in Quantico, Va. From there he was sent to Pensacola Florida where he earned his Naval Aviator wings as a helicopter pilot. He requested assignment to the New River (Jacksonville) NC to fly Ch-53 helicopters and was there until he finished his active duty commitment. During that time, he made two overseas deployments and attained the rank of Captain while also becoming a Post Maintenance Functional Check pilot for his helicopter. After completing his time on active duty, he attended the University of West Florida and earned a graduate degree in Political Science. Shortly after graduating he joined the NC Department of Crime Control and Public Safety (CC&PS) under Governor Jim Martin.


    He also joined the USMC Reserves and transitioned to fly the UH-1 Huey. In 1990 his unit was activated for the first Iraq war and he deployed to the Middle East where he flew combat missions and earned an Air Medal along with other awards. Retuning to the United states he resumed his job with CC&PS.

    In 1992 he left CC&PS and started his own business doing direct mail and consulting for commercial and political customers. Running his own business was a crash course in the challenges which face private business! In 1998 after being promoted to Lieutenant Colonel he transferred to a reserve unit at Camp Lejeune associated with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force. In 2001 he was called again to active duty following 9/11 and deployed to the Middle East as part of Task Force Tarawa from II MEF where he served his second combat tour for the initial invasion of Iraq. After returning from his combat tour, due to the high level operational tempo, he voluntarily remained on Active Duty.

    Upon return he served as the Training Officer for II MEF, helping to train and prepare Marines to deploy to combat and other contingencies around the world. He was awarded a Meritorious Service Medal and promoted to Colonel prior to leaving Active Duty in 2006. He remained in the reserves until retiring (awaiting pay) in 2011 after over 30 years of Service.

    Upon returning to civilian life, De Luca led the NC chapter of Americans for Prosperity where he served until 2007 when he joined the Civitas Institute, an unabashedly conservative organization supporting NC policy.

    He was selected as Civitas President in 2008. As the President of Civitas he pursued a conservative agenda which included promoting the hugely successful NC tax restructuring of the last several years, school choice initiatives which have enabled hundreds of thousands of NC children to get an education that meets their needs, and supporting traditional NC values across the spectrum.

    De Luca is married to the former Cynthia Lesley from Salisbury, NC and has two grown daughters and two grandchildren.

• Contact: Francis X. De Luca
•     (252) 424-2108