By Ryan Vasquez ⎹ Reporter
Baylor alumnus and long-time Waco businessman Rick Tullis won the seat for McLennan County Judge in this year’s primary elections. As judge, he will replace the current Judge Scott Felton at the start of 2027.
Tullis will preside as the head of the Commissioner’s Court, the organization that leads efforts between the city, the county and the chamber. While Tullis has many goals for the greater Waco area, he is particularly excited about improving economic development.
“I’ve been doing that for years, and I love doing that,” Tullis said.
Tullis graduated from Baylor in 1993 with a degree in mechanical engineering and is the former president and founding partner of Capstone Mechanical. His career has been dedicated to HVAC, plumbing, piping and building automation — all experiences he plans to bring into his new role.
“It’s fun thinking about a lot of the challenges our community is going to face over the next 20, 30, 40 years, like water and transportation and infrastructure,” Tullis said. “I love those kinds of problems.”
Tullis expressed his desire to improve mental health services and address property taxes for the community.
“I think as time goes forward, we’ve got to figure out a way to relieve some of the tax burden off taxpayers,” Tullis said. “None of us love paying property taxes. It’s not anybody’s favorite thing to do, but we just need to make sure we have systems that still allow us to provide the same level of services, or better services, even with what we have, to the community.”
In addition to business, Tullis has made lasting relationships with members of the Waco community, both professionally and personally. His son, Ross Tullis, said he admires the way his father approaches his work and life.
“As one of four boys, he very early on took a meaningful effort to develop us into mature men, namely by teaching us that a real man rejects passivity, takes responsibility, and puts others before himself,” Ross Tullis said. “I think you can really look at the way that he lives his life. Whenever I kind of look for a North Star on my worst days, that’s a great place to start for me.”
As he steps into a new role, Rick Tullis said he hopes his friendly reputation precedes him.
“I want to be known as the collaborative county judge and someone who can work with all aspects of our community and come up with good solutions to our problems,” Tullis said.
As part of his goal to grow Waco economically, he hopes Baylor graduates will stay and grow their own businesses in the community.
“If we can find ways to make Waco sticky and keep students here, that’s a huge, huge benefit,” Tullis said.
As a Baylor alumnus, both the Waco community and his education at the school of engineering continue to have an impact on his work more than 30 years later, he said.
“I really feel like I got a great education that helped propel me to do things that I saw engineers from other brand-name engineering schools struggle with,” Tullis said. “So I’ve ended up being very thankful for my education.”
Ross Tullis has seen his father make many connections and said his involvement in the community is a large part of his success.
“Your best defense isn’t the one that you make for yourself; it’s the defense that your friends make for you,” Ross Tullis said. “In his time running for county judge, he hasn’t had an opponent because he’s made so many friends in the community. When he decided that this was an opportunity he wanted to run for, the greater Waco community and McLennan County totally surrounded him, and it was one of the best — if not the best — examples I’ve seen of what decades of community involvement can do for you.”
