The woman who refused to shutter her Texas salon during government-imposed COVID lockdowns is now headed to Austin, having won the state House seat for District 62.

Shelley Luther made national headlines in 2020 after she was arrested and sentenced to spend a week in jail for criminal contempt of court, having reopened her North Dallas hair salon in defiance of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's stay-at-home orders.

'It was God. It was how he chose to save me for such a time as this.'

Following her sudden rise to fame, Luther decided to become politically involved and ran as a Republican for the Texas Senate, a bid that was ultimately unsuccessful.

In 2022, Luther then challenged two-term incumbent state Rep. Reggie Smith in the Texas House District 62 Republican primary. Once again, she came up short.

About a year later, Luther suffered a brain aneurysm that nearly cost her her life. "I ... definitely should have died," Luther said in a statement to Blaze News.

After a grueling recovery process, Luther, a woman of deep Christian faith, felt God calling her to give a run for office one more try. "I realize now that I wasn't ready to win back in 2020, even though I thought I was," she told Blaze News.

Earlier this year, she once again challenged Smith in the Republican primary for the District 62 Texas House seat. This time, she won, as Blaze News previously reported.

District 62 — which represents Grayson, Franklin, Fannin, and Delta Counties — is conservative, so Luther's win in the Republican primary in March boded well for her chances in the 2024 general election.

Even still, Luther seems to have outperformed. On Tuesday, she trounced her Democrat opponent, Tiffany Drake, earning more than 75% of the nearly 85,000 votes cast.

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"It was God. It was how he chose to save me for such a time as this," she told Blaze News.

Though Luther ostensibly hopes to prevent further cases of onerous governmental overreach such as the lockdowns of 2020, she has other issues she wants to address as well.

One issue of particular concern in the area is funding for public education. Luther supports the expansion of school vouchers but claims lawmakers can still adequately fund local school districts with more available vouchers.

"For me, school vouchers and public school funding are two different things," she told KXII on election night. "Even if we do pass school vouchers, that doesn‘t mean we can’t make sure that rural schools have the money they need to be successful too."

Whatever the challenges, Luther indicated to Blaze News that she feels ready to meet them.

"With God's suit of armor and protection, I am ready to go to battle and answer only to Him. Fortunately, for my constituents, they will receive those blessings in His honor."

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