High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Thomas Russell Craddick, known as Tom Craddick (born September 19, 1943), was the first Republican to have served as Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives since Reconstruction. Craddick wielded the Speaker`s gavel from 2003-2009. A House member from the district based in Midland, Craddick was first elected in 1968 at the age of twenty-five.