After completing school, Lufkin was a newspaper correspondent and a private secretary to Congressman Augustus P. Gardner.

In 1916, the Massachusetts legislature and electorate approved a calling of a Constitutional Convention.

[2] Lufkin was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-fifth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Congressman Augustus P. Gardner.

Lufkin was reelected to the Sixty-sixth and Sixty-seventh Congresses and served from November 6, 1917 to June 30, 1921.

He resigned to become Collector of Customs for the Port of Boston on July 1, 1921 and served until his retirement in 1933.