WASHINGTON — Although a Texan did not end up getting the speaker’s gavel, a Texas representative would like the new House speaker’s old leadership job.

What You Need To Know

  • Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R- Irving, is among several candidates for vice chair of the House Republican Conference

  • The Conference is responsible for developing and implementing a communications strategy for members

  • Van Duyne, a former communications professional, said she's running to help with messaging and to bring attention to local solutions lawmakers have provided

House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, was the vice chairman of the Republican Conference, responsible for developing and implementing a communications strategy for House Republicans. He leaves that position vacant, and Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R- Irving, is among several representatives in the running.

“I’m running to try to help with messaging,” Van Duyne said. “Republicans, in districts all across the country, do a phenomenal job at home, doing things that a lot of constituents don’t necessarily see. We see a lot of federal news, you know, a lot of national news. But the fact is, is that, as Republicans, we’re bringing very pragmatic solutions into the district,” she continued. 

As an example, Van Duyne, who is a former Irving mayor and City Council member, pointed to a large job fair she organized in North Texas over the summer with nearly 400 businesses and 16,000 job seekers.

“We did that as a direct result of talking to businesses across the district that said they were having a very difficult time hiring people,” she said. “Instead of going to D.C. and passing a bill and waiting for that to happen, machinations going through the Senate, getting signed, we just decided to have a job fair. And we did it in a very bipartisan manner.”

She also highlights helping to launch a website that helped mothers find baby formula amid the supply chain disruptions last year. The goal was for the North Texas community to crowdsource information about which stores had formulas in stock.

Van Duyne was first elected to Congress in 2020 and before that worked at the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Trump administration. 

As part of her pitch to colleagues, Van Duyne has been circulating a letter saying, “I’ve been a fighter my whole life — I was a homeless teen who paid my own way through college (ultimately paying off student debt) before becoming a young mother who fought insurance companies and bureaucratic red tape to get my daughter the surgeries she needed.” 

“It’s those kinds of adversities that we deal with that make us better able to represent, you know, and talking to people and, actually having lived for gosh, over 35 years now, in the same district, in the same neighborhood,” she said. 

Some Texas Republicans have already come out to say they are backing Van Duyne, including Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock. On social media, he called her a “battle-tested leader” and a “skilled communicator.” 

A candidate forum is scheduled for Nov. 7 and the election will be held the following day.