Laughlin was born in Bay City, Texas and he graduated from Texas A&M University. Laughlin served in the United States Army from 1968 to 1970. Before election to Congress in 1988, Mr. Laughlin practiced law in Texas and served as Assistant District Attorney in Houston, Texas, for four years.

A moderate Democrat, Laughlin ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in 1986, but was then victorious in 1988.

Laughlin survived a bitter re-election campaign despite allegations involving favoritism to a firm several years earlier.

Laughlin was the only Member of Congress to see active duty during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, as a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves.

In 1995, the Republican party, which had recently gained a majority in the House for the first time in decades, offered Laughlin a seat on the Ways and Means committee if he joined the Republican Party. Laughlin did so, claming that as a Democrat, he had to make some hard votes.

In the subsequent Congressional election in 1996, Laughlin was endorsed by the Republican establishment, including then-Governor George W. Bush, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and other members of the party from outside the district and the state. Despite this, Republicans in Laughlin's district still saw him as too moderate, and he faced a primary challenge from former Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul (also a former Libertarian presidential candidate), as well as Laughlin's primary opponent from the 1994 election. In a three-way race, Laughlin won the initial primary election with 42f the vote, but by failing to win a majority he was required to face the second-place Paul in a run-off election. Paul defeated Laughlin by a 56Ô4argin in the run-off election, and went on to win the Congressional seat.

Laughlin remained in Washington, D.C., practicing law at the Washington, D.C. office of Patton Boggs, in the areas of public policy, energy, international trade, and tax law. He has since moved to the firm of Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw, Pittman.