Lukas Gilkey: From Selling E-Liquid Out of His Car to Telling the Texas Senate “Don’t Mess With Hemp”

Lukas Gilkey’s career in hemp began with a car, a stash of e-liquid and a list of vapor shops. A U.S. Coast Guard veteran, he founded Hometown Hero in Austin in 2015 and, as the Austin Chronicle put it, started out selling e-liquid to vapor shops out of his car as an alternative to cigarettes. Nine years later he sat before the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs with a short message for lawmakers: “Please don’t mess with hemp.”

Texas Cannabis Advocacy Pioneers, part 2 of 5. Previous: Colton Luther. Next: Austin Zamhariri. See the full series.

Building Hometown Hero

Hometown Hero grew from vape liquids into hemp-derived products. According to the Austin Chronicle, the company began offering delta-8 THC after the 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp, and by 2021 it was shipping to the 38 states that allowed delta-8 sales at the time. The company says its delta-8 is extracted naturally from hemp rather than converted from CBD. A later Texas Hemp Business Council press release identifies Gilkey as the company’s CEO and co-founder.

2021: The Delta-8 Ban That Died

In the 2021 session, House Bill 3948 would have made delta-8 THC illegal in Texas. Gilkey, other delta-8 vendors and the Texas Hemp Federation worked to stop it, and the bill died after the House and Senate could not agree on amendments. Gilkey told the Chronicle, “we proved that the Delta-8 industry is capable of fighting overreaching.”

That sentence summarizes a pattern that would repeat in 2025: a small, fast-growing industry with little lobbying history discovered it could organize, show up and win.

A Company That Gives Back to Veterans

The Chronicle reported that Hometown Hero donates a portion of its profits each year to veterans’ charities. In 2020 it gave $25,000 to the Texas VFW and Disabled American Veterans, and in March 2021 it made a $10,000 donation to Soldiers’ Angels in San Antonio. Gilkey said the company aimed to give more in 2021 than ever before. These figures are from 2021 reporting and reflect the company’s own statements at that time.

May 2024: Taking Hemp to the Senate

On May 29, 2024, the Senate Committee on State Affairs held a hearing on hemp products. A Texas Hemp Business Council press release issued the day before named Gilkey, the CEO and co-founder of Hometown Hero and a founding member of the council, as a scheduled witness. The release quotes him: “Our message to lawmakers is simple: Please don’t mess with hemp.”

The council’s argument, as stated in that release, is that the hemp-derived cannabinoid industry has an $8 billion economic impact, pays $1.6 billion in annual wages and supports more than 50,000 workers, and that prohibition would push consumers toward an illicit market. Those economic figures are the council’s and have not been independently verified by CannaWize. The council’s own About page, which lists its current board, does not name Gilkey, so his current role with the group is something we could not confirm.

On the Record: The Podcast Circuit

Gilkey also makes the industry’s case in long-form conversation. On September 25, 2024, attorney Rod Kight published a video podcast on Kight on Cannabis in which he visited Hometown Hero’s Austin headquarters to talk with Gilkey about federal court rulings, hemp raids, multistate operators and the future of cannabis. Kight describes the company as a national leader in pushing sensible cannabis policy.

Why It Matters for 2027

Gilkey’s story is a template for how Texas hemp became a political force: an entrepreneur-veteran, a business that doubled as a charity channel, and a willingness to testify. As the 90th Legislature opens, the industry faces the question he and others raised in 2024, whether regulation can be written without erasing existing products. See our report on the missing hemp and THCA bills and our guide to what is legal after December 11.