TFRW Woman of Distinction – December 2020
Our December TFRW Woman of Distinction is our newly elected U.S. Congresswoman from the 24th Congressional District of Texas, Beth Van Duyne. Hats off to you, Beth!
Beth Van Duyne was born in upstate New York, but in 1986 her family moved to Irving, Texas. She graduated from Greenhill School in Addison, Texas, and later graduated from Cornell University, magna cum laude, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in city and regional planning, government, and law.
Irving, Texas, City Council and Mayor
In 2004, after becoming dissatisfied with the Irving city councilman representing her district, she mounted a successful campaign to defeat him. In 2010, she stepped down from the council and successfully ran for mayor in 2011, defeating the same person, and again in a rematch in the 2014 election.
In 2015, while serving as Irving mayor, she pushed for a vote on a resolution in support of a bill seeking to ban sharia law. In that same year, when a Muslim boy was arrested for bringing a homemade clock which teachers thought was a bomb to school, Van Duyne defended the school and the Irving Police Department for their actions.
Appointed to HUD by President Trump
In 2017, after announcing she would not seek a third term as mayor, President Donald Trump appointed her as a regional administrator for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, overseeing Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana and Arkansas.
Running for Congress
Following Kenny Marchant’s announcement in 2019 that he would not run for reelection to the U.S. House of Representative, Beth announced her resignation from HUD in order to run to secede him in Texas’ 24th Congressional District, an area including parts of Denton, Dallas, and Tarrant counties.
When asked what prompted her to run for public office, her answer was, “My children. We live in a very fragile time for our nation, our families, and the future of the American dream. Socialism is on the rise, our border crisis has never been worse, and we face constant threats from hostile nations willing to use cyber-attacks, nuclear weapons, and terrorist jihad. When I think about my two children, I want them to have the same opportunities in life that I did: I want them to be able to grow up safe and proud of our country.”
Beth is a single mom, a conservative Republican, a reformer who has defeated government corruption, a believer in the rule of law who has helped remove thousands of criminal aliens from north Texas, a leader who helped deliver growth and new job opportunities, and a Constitutionalist who has never backed down when it comes to protecting the rights of all North Texans! She is also an active member of Irving Republican Women.
