[3] After completing his doctorate, Lucier was associate editor of the Richmond News Leader, in Virginia;[3] he caused controversy by writing critically of President John F. Kennedy shortly after his assassination.

[1][a] Also in 1963, he wrote for American Opinion, the magazine of the right-wing John Birch Society, accusing African leaders of embracing socialism as "abundance without necessitating the earning of it".

[5] After working for South Carolina Southern Democrat and later Republican Senator Strom Thurmond,[1] he joined the staff of North Carolina Republican Senator Jesse Helms, initially as coordinator of domestic legislative policy, then as chief legislative aide for foreign affairs.

[7][8] In 1972, Lucier established Capitol Information Services, which he worked for part-time at the beginning of his employment with Helms; in 1986, the Charlotte Observer raised questions about the ethics of a Senate aide running such a business.

[13] In 2006, Lucier was appointed head of the Program on the Middle East and the Iran Information Center at the Institute on Religion and Public Policy.