#56 Rep. Beth Van Duyne | Mayors Move the Economy – Congress Sets the Rules

About the episode

Van Duyne moved out on her own at 17 and worked two and three jobs at a time to pay rent, then went to Cornell on loans that took her 10 years to pay off. She got into local politics over shade at a neighborhood park. When a zoning fight put her across from a city councilman nobody wanted to run against, she ran, was outspent 8 to 1, and won. She became the first woman elected mayor of Irving, served at HUD, and won her seat in Congress in 2020.

Her North Texas Job Fair drew 6,000 people its first year. This year it drew 50,000 to Globe Life Field, where 670 employers were hiring for 68,000 jobs. Companies deciding where to relocate, she says, look at schools, roads, flights out of DFW, housing and whether they can hire, and the city that sells itself hardest wins.

She also covers how a bill actually moves through Congress, why her small business regulation bill passed the House and stalled in the Senate, why she sends back checks from donors who expect a vote, and the most effective way for a business owner or executive to get a member’s attention.

Rep. Beth Van Duyne represents Texas’s 24th Congressional District. She serves on the House Ways and Means Committee and chairs the House Small Business Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access. Before Congress she was HUD’s Southwest Regional Administrator, Mayor of Irving from 2011 to 2017, and a member of the Irving City Council. She began her career in business and ran her own consulting firm, and graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University.