[3][4] Tom Strickland was born in Texas but attended Louisiana State University where he took a degree in English literature, with honors, and played football.

[12] In 2000, he prosecuted of the largest drug bust in Longmont's history, an investigation that grew to include California and Nebraska and involved the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Attorney's office, the Federal Housing Authority and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

In addition, Strickland went after human traffickers as demonstrated by his commitment to prosecuting three people in charges of transporting illegal immigrants after a van crash in northeast Colorado that killed six men.

[17] On April 24, 2007, he was appointed executive vice president and chief legal officer of UnitedHealth Group, a diversified health and well-being company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota and serving more than 70 million individuals nationwide.

On January 21, 2009, it was announced that Strickland had accepted an appointment to serve in President Barack Obama's administration as the chief of staff and Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks in the Department of the Interior.

America's Great Outdoors, which led to the passage of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, was heralded as one of the most important conservation measures in decades.

[21] Strickland joined Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr in 2011 and is a partner in the firm's Regulatory and Government Affairs, Litigation/Controversy and Securities Departments.

Strickland had represented the Sierra Club and had served on the regional board of the Environmental Defense Fund; he was endorsed by nearly every environmental group in Colorado; however, his Republican opponent, Wayne Allard, borrowed a tactic from Strickland's law partner, Steve Farber, and painted him as "the polluters' lawyer" in commercials based on research of his record of legal work for numerous clients over a ten-year legal career.

The campaign was characterized by mutual accusations that the other candidate was linked with a powerful communications company, Allard with Qwest and Strickland with Global Crossing.